What are some things that were different when flying on a commercial airline 30 years ago than today?
First class was truly first class! I didn’t get to fly in the front of the plane often, but when I did it made a huge difference in how I felt when I arrived, especially on the longer flights (7+ hours). The seats were much bigger, reclined almost fully, and in some cases each seat was an island on its own, not paired with another. In fact, on some of the planes that TWA code-shared with Gulf Air, there was so much legroom one could walk completely around one’s own seat.
Jumbos were pretty new, and in the case of the 747, the upstairs section was often configured as a real lounge, not just another cabin jammed full of seats. You could mingle with other passengers, sit at the bar, spend part of the flight passing the time socially. It felt very relaxed, civilized.
The Internet didn’t exist, so if you wanted to know if your flight was on time, you called the airline on the telephone! And spoke to a real human being — imagine that! If you flew often, you’d be marked as a high-priority passenger and if your flight was going to be delayed, the airline called you!
Tickets were basically cash, which meant that almost any airline would honor a ticket from a competitive airline to the same or similar destination. That meant extra flexibility when equipment or other problems arose.
Cockpit visits could be had just for the (polite) asking. In fact, I had once booked a flight on British Airways from New York’s JFK to Toulouse, France, changing planes in London’s Gatwick for the hop across the channel. Unfortunately, they had an equipment change for the flight to France and had no seats. I badly need to be in Toulouse on time for my work and begged the airline for any help they could give me. That resulted in one of the most fascinating flights I’d ever had, sitting in the cockpit jump seat the entire flight — something that would be unthinkable now.
Inspections and security checks started in the late 1960s, but they were fast, simple and not at all intrusive. And actually, up until the late 1970s you could board a US domestic flight with just your boarding pass; absolutely no ID was required to fly.
In-flight entertainment basically sucked. In the beginning there was a single movie for everyone, shown on a handful of screens set in the bulkheads of each passenger section. And other than a handful of fairly crappy audio channels, that was it. The instant the SONY Walkman (which played a cassette tape, if anyone remembers those) was available I joined many other flyers to buy one.
and last but hardly least…
Flying was fun, partly because the experience was novel for many people, and partly because moving through the airport onto the plane and into your seat was fast and easy, it was not the extended and stressful process it is today.
