I was reading about airlines this evening, their cheapness when it comes to food and service, how both have declined, etc. Of course, flights today are much cheaper than, say, 30 years ago.

And that brought up a question: How much did I pay in 1974 for a roundtrip FRA/DFW (PanAm across the pond both ways) flight?

I really can’t recall, though a ~$300-plus figure comes to mind, though that seems way low. Even so, that would have been a significant chunk of monthly income, of course.

Anyone remember more accurately what flights cost then?

That’s probably pretty close.  I recall it costing nearly $500 to get Janet and Natalie over to Munich in 1972 (one-way fares).

After a torturous series of discussions through 1971, all the major transatlantic carriers agreed to set fares for the transatlantic route. An average flight across the ocean cost about $204…

The Era of Commercial Jets _>

That figure could easily be correct. I know I bought roundtrip, so if it was in the area of $400-plus instead of $300-plus, that would make just as much sense and still fit into my oh-so-constantly-diminishing memory.

All this made me think of the best flights I’ve had. From FRA to JFK, it was a PanAm 747, December of ‘74, IIRC. It probably wasn’t a third full, and I was able to pull up the arms on the seats in the center row across from me (I was over by the windows) and stretch out to sleep. Kind of like pulling chairs together on a mid.

Those were the days when they used real metal utensils with the meals (and the meals were much better then). Then after you’ve slept all night and as we neared the destination, they’d pass out hot towels to everyone to refresh ourselves. And this in coach! Much roomier seats then as well.

Alas, those days — and PanAm — are no more.

I always like Braniff, too, and those $15 military standby flights.

Man those were the good old days.  Some of my first gourmet meals were on PanAm.  My first flight ever was in a C-47 flying from San Antonio to Panama in 1945 to join my Dad after the war.  We were passengers on a Generals aircraft and the trip took two days.  It was neat as we did not fly very high and I remember flying between mountain peaks on the way to Guatamala City to overnight.  I even got to sit next to the pilot for a short while.  Pretty neat.  Guatamala City as I remember it was like a page from National Geographic with stange colors, sounds,and natives in the street.  The next most memorable was in 1954 on a PanAm Clipper from San Francisco to Japan.  The flight also took 2 days.  We had to refuel in Hawaii and at Midway.  Things sure have changed.  The trip last month from LAX to Sydney took about only 15 hours cramped and non stop.  It was not too bad, though as we flew in a brand new Air bus.  Really neat with private cabins for first class and bed for business class and actually more leg room for us peons.  The food was OK but not PanAm class.

There’s a memory I just can’t lose, and I guess it’s pertinent simply because of the highly computerized nature of today’s reservations systems.

Back in the ealry ‘70s, of course, the tickets were mostly hand-written, and all the counter personnel would scribble all over them in some unknown handwriting technique.

Once, flying from DFW to San Antonio (Braniff, I think), the flight was overbooked, as usual, so the lady at the counter apologized, placed a sticker over the pertinent portion of the ticket and wrote some standby information on it, replacing all the reserved status stuff there.

So as I was walking to the gate, hoping someone wouldn’t show up and I could take my flight as planned, I had a bit of inspiration. What would happen if I simply peeled off that sticker she’d placed on my ticket?

So I did. I went up to the gate, got processed, waved on through and seated on the plane. Later, fight attendants came through about three times doing a head count, but we still ended up taking off on time.

I felt no guilt. They overbook on purpose, and were (are) fully prepared to simply apologize when they screw up your plans. Nothing so simple works these days, of course.