Tale #1: The Concorde Incident

In the early days of my career, eager to impress and fresh from my YTS training, I needed to check a flight to New York. So instantly called British Airways to check the cheapest fare — a Super APEX (that was the term for the lowest fare) — on flight BA001 from London to New York.

There was a short pause on the other end of the line before the BA reservations agent, in the most polite but pointed tone, replied:

“Madam… BA001 is Concorde.”

Needless to say, there were no discount fares on Concorde. No early booking deals. No two-for-ones. Just the sound of me quietly dying inside as I scribbled that lesson down in my notebook with red biro and vowed never to forget it.

We didn’t have Google back then. You learned quickly, mostly through embarrassment — but those were the lessons that stuck.