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They came .... and went .... :(
The 'World class' layout had seating in two -side-by-side chairs .... after take-off the 'stews' swivelled about two 'rows' of chairs into a four facing inwards configuration and erected a circular table inside the quadrangle of seats. After laying the table with lawn tablecloths and 'pukka' crockery and cutlery we were served dinner by a knife weilding Cheif Steward who carved slices off the several joints on offer! Ah ... those were the days :)
IMHO, the 'Revenue' had a policy of 'you can claim a legitimate expenses - actually disbursed and necessitated in the performance of your duties - but not 'remuneration' which was taxable. Thus, newspapers, haircuts, etc, were not allowable - you'd have bought these anyway - but, fr'instance, breakfast was claimable - because you couldn't go home and eat it there. Items such as 'laundry' became contestable.. I recall the days when one had to have a passport endorsed if taking more than £30 out of the country. The Revenue were very interested in whether an employee was receiving a benefit which had not been 'attracted' an appropriate amount of tax. Was travelling 'World class' a benefit , the back-end of the plane arrived sufficiently close that we could have 'performed our duties'? Our argument that we'd not spent any more money than travelling 'Y' class on a different airline .... . In the 'end' we won .... but it was more hassle than it was worth ... and curiously the company issued an amended 'travel policy' which was 'class' based rather than 'fares' based. Even more curiously ; 'World Air' disappeared off the 'departure boards' at Gatwick. [Although it seems to be operating .... supplier of 'transportation services' to the USAF. ]