Such luxury!

PeterNSteinmetz

PeterNSteinmetz

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PeterNSteinmetz
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Any airline could go back to the glory days, but at a price.
Fact is, in general airlines have run the numbers and your second picture yields the better bottom line.
 
It’s hard to believe how those things would crash regularly. Some never to be found until decades later...or never. My dad travelled a lot for work back in the 60’s. He dearly misses being able to smoke on the big planes. It’s amazing how they would fly those massive DC-8’s from small city to big city as if they were an RJ.
I’m still impressed with overseas service. My favorite has been and continues to be Oman Airlines. Amazing dining and amazing service. Too bad they don’t fly to North America.
 
Yes, the luxury was supported by much higher fares in real dollars, propped up by the CAB regulating prices and routes and so the main competition was on the niceness of the meals and cuteness of the stewardesses.

I am frankly surprised that the CAB lasted into the 80s.
 
Kritchlow said:
Any airline could go back to the glory days, but at a price.
Fact is, in general airlines have run the numbers and your second picture yields the better bottom line.
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There was a bit more to it than that. 50 years ago most airlines were national carriers, either owned by their national governments or granted protected monopoly routes by the government regulators. Think of all the airlines that used to exist, one for every little nation in western Europe for example, back then.

We still have the last vestiges of that time living on in the national carriers of the Persian Gulf and in a few nations that have bailed out their former national carriers during this COVID episode.

YooperMooney said:
It’s amazing how they would fly those massive DC-8’s from small city to big city as if they were an RJ...
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My first ever flight on an airplane was in 1964 on a DC-8 from the west coast to Hong Kong. Stop and deplane in Anchorage to refuel. Stop and deplane in Tokyo to refuel. Stop for an overnight hotel stay in Hong Kong and then change planes to a Qantas 707 for the remainder of the flight to Asia. Now my kid brother flies 787s non-stop from the west coast to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Brisbane, Melbourne, Shanghai and Beijing (except when the lock down for COVID) and even further.

YooperMooney said:
I’m still impressed with overseas service. My favorite has been and continues to be Oman Airlines. Amazing dining and amazing service. Too bad they don’t fly to North America.
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Oman Air? Have you flown Qatar, Etihad or Emirates Business or First Class? My last half dozen trips into Muscat a few years ago were all through Doha so I could use Qatar's totally over the top Biz Class lounge.
 
Look how they dressed back then. Very appropriate for the three course service.
Looking at your sleeve, pretzels & coke fits just fine...at least you are not in pajamas:D
 
GRG55 said:
There was a bit more to it than that. 50 years ago most airlines were national carriers, either owned by their national governments or granted protected monopoly routes by the government regulators. Think of all the airlines that used to exist, one for every little nation in western Europe for example, back then.

We still have the last vestiges of that time living on in the national carriers of the Persian Gulf and in a few nations that have bailed out their former national carriers during this COVID episode.



My first ever flight on an airplane was in 1964 on a DC-8 from the west coast to Hong Kong. Stop and deplane in Anchorage to refuel. Stop and deplane in Tokyo to refuel. Stop for an overnight hotel stay in Hong Kong and then change planes to a Qantas 707 for the remainder of the flight to Asia. Now my kid brother flies 787s non-stop from the west coast to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Brisbane, Melbourne, Shanghai and Beijing (except when the lock down for COVID) and even further.



Oman Air? Have you flown Qatar, Etihad or Emirates Business or First Class? My last half dozen trips into Muscat a few years ago were all through Doha so I could use Qatar's totally over the top Biz Class lounge.
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I flew Emirates and Qatar in biz too. As I paid for these flights out of my own pocket I feel that Oman was the best value. I never had a chance to visit the all-new Muscat airport which opened just after I left the region.
Qatar is in a league of their own; quite over the top. The Doha lounge is incredible for biz and I cannot image what it is like for FC pax.
I’ll always give some extra respect to Omani’s as they are wealthy but still humble enough to be pilots and stewards of their own aircraft. I suppose the whole non-use of silverware may have something to do with it.
 
If I had to pay for tickets, I’d go with whatever is the cheapest. You know what you’re getting if you buy a $50 ticket. I booked with JetBlue for my honeymoon and got a flight and hotel package. I’d much rather invest in a good credit card like the Amex platinum because it gives me lounge access so I don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a business class seat to gain access. If I was flying internationally, I may pony up for a first class ticket but I don’t need it going from NY to Atlanta.
 
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I regularly flew Cathay Pacific business class between SFO and Hong Kong. I think the best part of the flight was eating and drinking in the business class lounge before the flight and on the stopover.

The best I've flown was Singapore Airlines. Their economy is as good as some airlines' business class.
 
Sac Arrow said:
I regularly flew Cathay Pacific business class between SFO and Hong Kong. I think the best part of the flight was eating and drinking in the business class lounge before the flight and on the stopover.

The best I've flown was Singapore Airlines. Their economy is as good as some airlines' business class.
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I look for cheap flights when I'm paying for it, but I was fortunate to fly business class on the Singapore Airlines nonstop from Newark to Singapore, twice, on the company dime. Those were incredible experiences.
Even the airport, with the addition of the 'Jewel', is an incredible experience.

Yes, I know how odd it seems to be using the word 'incredible', in the good sense, in reference to a long haul flight or an airport...

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GRG55 said:
My first ever flight on an airplane was in 1964 on a DC-8 from the west coast to Hong Kong. Stop and deplane in Anchorage to refuel. Stop and deplane in Tokyo to refuel.
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That's interesting. The DC8s I flew, 60 and 70 series, had the range for the west coast to Tokyo, if not Hong Kong. Maybe the 50-series had shorter legs.
 
GaryM said:
I look for cheap flights when I'm paying for it, but I was fortunate to fly business class on the Singapore Airlines nonstop from Newark to Singapore, twice, on the company dime. Those were incredible experiences.
Even the airport, with the addition of the 'Jewel', is an incredible experience.
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That whole airport is a model of how it should be done worldwide. Logical, comfortable, and everything a traveller would need at hand. It's as though the airport designers had actually flown on a plane when they architected it, rather than just modeling off of the Legoland Airport set and drawing rectangles everywhere.
 
jordane93 said:
If I had to pay for tickets, I’d go with whatever is the cheapest. You know what you’re getting if you buy a $50 ticket. I booked with JetBlue for my honeymoon and got a flight and hotel package. I’d much rather invest in a good credit card like the Amex platinum because it gives me lounge access so I don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on a business class seat to gain access. If I was flying internationally, I may pony up for a first class ticket but I don’t need it going from NY to Atlanta.
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You’re honeymooning in Atlanta? Really living it up, huh. :)
 
Larry in TN said:
That's interesting. The DC8s I flew, 60 and 70 series, had the range for the west coast to Tokyo, if not Hong Kong. Maybe the 50-series had shorter legs.
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The DC-8 I flew back on across the Atlantic in May 1965 wasn't much different. We departed London Heathrow and had to make a fuel stop at Prestwick, Scotland (Glasgow) to have enough fuel and reserves to get to Gander. These were both tiny airplanes even compared to the noticably longer "stretch" DC-8s I remember in the skies about 1969/70.

Many years later, when I was in engineering school, circa 1977, our local ASME chapter arranged a tour of the (now successor) airline's new hangar. It was built to house 747s for maintenance. When we got there they had one of these little DC-8s stripped to bare aluminum and parked under and behind the tail of the Boeing Jumbo, which dwarfed it. It looked almost like a toy. I was wondering if it was one of the two I had flown on years earlier. I think they were refurbishing it and putting it back to original markings for a museum or something.
 
jordane93 said:
I’ll actually be down there or in Miami when I get back to training in June. I may have to take you up on that offer!
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Yeah, I figured you weren’t really honeymooning in Atlanta. :). Definitely look me up if you come here for training
 
GRG55 said:
Now my kid brother flies 787s non-stop from the west coast to Tokyo, Hong Kong, Brisbane, Melbourne, Shanghai and Beijing (except when the lock down for COVID) and even further.
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SFO to SIN on a 787 is 18 hours. LAX to SIN on a 787 is 19 hours. 19 hours is the longest flight UA has (at least, the last time I checked) and I've ridden the SFO to SIN (and back) flight more than once. Even in a 787 E+ that's a long flight.

Now, if you want to talk about a bunch of hours to get from point A to point B... Back in 2006 I had meetings in Cape Town, SA. Intel bought me tickets that ran from SEA to Heathrow to FRA and finally to Cape Town. My wife flew on UA miles and they charged her the miles for two RTs. SEA to SIN (via a change of flights at SFO and a stop at ICN) and then change planes in SIN for a trip to Cape Town through Johannesburg. They were late getting out of SFO and were unable to make up any time, so she had 20 minutes to make her connection at SIN. She made it, her bags didn't. They showed up at the hotel in Cape Town just in time for us to catch our ride to the airport to go to Johannesburg. Singapore gave her some money to buy clothes in Cape Town. Now, going home let's talk about time in the air. I returned via FRA and ORD and she went back through SIN, ICN and SFO. She got out of Johannesburg 5 hours ahead of me and I got into SEA 2 hours ahead of her. And I was in transit for 28 hours. She was in transit for 35 hours. Most of that time in the air.

Back before the market tanked in 2000 my employer at the time bought business class tickets for transpac flights, but coach tickets for trans-Atlantic flights. Same amount of time out of SEA for NRT or Heathrow, but a tanspac business ticket was only a few 100 dollars more than coach, but for riding to Europe it was several times the coach ticket. I remember riding business on Singapore and JAL (among others, I'm sure). Singapore certainly lived up to their advertising. Very nice and comfortable. My wife rode them in coach and had no complaints about that, either.
 
idahoflier said:
How did you get a coke!? All I could get on SWA was pretzels and water...
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They have now started offering Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, and water. The FA comes by with a card showing those 4 items with a number. You put up the number of fingers that matches the item that you want.
 
jayhawk74 said:
You put up the number of fingers that matches the item that you want.
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When I was in elementary school holding up one or two fingers indicated to the teacher what needed to be done in the restroom....
 
jayhawk74 said:
They have now started offering Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, and water. The FA comes by with a card showing those 4 items with a number. You put up the number of fingers that matches the item that you want.
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Well, that's a little progress I guess. Hopefully passengers are judicious in how they display their preference for item #1 lest they face the wrath of Dickson...
 
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