Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
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Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
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Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
#2The golden age they refer to is a very brief period of time in a now long history of flight. From almost every possible perspective, flying domestically within the US has more in common with taking a bus than with international aviation.
Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
#3Air Hollywood, which is a film set rental company, offers the Pan Am Experience.[1] For about $300, you get to sit in a 747 cabin on the ground and have the experience of a Pan Am dinner from the 1960s.
Even at the low end, air travel was impressive. PSA was a low-cost airline. SJC to LAX, every hour, for about $14, with a 59 minute flight time. The process was very simple. Drive up to terminal. Park. Walk up to cash register. Pay. The register receipt was the boarding pass. A 727 pulls up and lowers the rear stairs. People get off. After a few minutes, the person who ran the cash register leads everyone waiting out to the plane, and they climb the stairs. Stairs retract, and plane takes off. PSA stewardess graduation pictures from 1974.[2]
[1] https://airhollywood.com/events/pan-am-experience/
[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20090121124408/http://www.jetpsa...
Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
#4Air Hollywood, which is a film set rental company, offers the Pan Am Experience.[1] For about $300, you get to sit in a 747 cabin on the ground and have the experience of a Pan Am dinner from the 1960s. Even at the low end, air travel was impressive. PSA was a low-cost airline. SJC to LAX, every hour, for about $14, with a 59 minute flight time. The process was very simple. Drive up to terminal. Park. Walk up to cash…
That boarding process seems so great. Right now literally prefer a 12 hour drive to a one hour flight. The whole process is exhausting and stressful.
Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
#5Air Hollywood, which is a film set rental company, offers the Pan Am Experience.[1] For about $300, you get to sit in a 747 cabin on the ground and have the experience of a Pan Am dinner from the 1960s. Even at the low end, air travel was impressive. PSA was a low-cost airline. SJC to LAX, every hour, for about $14, with a 59 minute flight time. The process was very simple. Drive up to terminal. Park. Walk up to cash…
That boarding process seems so great. Right now literally prefer a 12 hour drive to a one hour flight. The whole process is exhausting and stressful.
It's probably better for our habitable ecosystem though so in a backwards way anything that makes plane travel less of a convenient no-brainer is good.
Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
#6"I member" as Southpark would put it.
But seriously, not really shedding tears here. It was nice as long as it lasted, but packing your own food isn't that big of deal, imo.
Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
#7Air Hollywood, which is a film set rental company, offers the Pan Am Experience.[1] For about $300, you get to sit in a 747 cabin on the ground and have the experience of a Pan Am dinner from the 1960s. Even at the low end, air travel was impressive. PSA was a low-cost airline. SJC to LAX, every hour, for about $14, with a 59 minute flight time. The process was very simple. Drive up to terminal. Park. Walk up to cash…
That boarding process seems so great. Right now literally prefer a 12 hour drive to a one hour flight. The whole process is exhausting and stressful.
> prefer a 12 hour drive to a one hour flight
I'm right there with you. I'd go as far as 14 hour drive before I start thinking I should fly instead.
It wasn't always like this, flying was bearable even as far back as 2002-2008 even counting the post-9/11 stuff. I think a most of it has to do with cost-cutting. The second they find an efficiency they cut staff and hire cheaper workers. The whole culture around airports, even expensive ones, has started to resemble bus stations.
Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
#8Air Hollywood, which is a film set rental company, offers the Pan Am Experience.[1] For about $300, you get to sit in a 747 cabin on the ground and have the experience of a Pan Am dinner from the 1960s. Even at the low end, air travel was impressive. PSA was a low-cost airline. SJC to LAX, every hour, for about $14, with a 59 minute flight time. The process was very simple. Drive up to terminal. Park. Walk up to cash…
That boarding process seems so great. Right now literally prefer a 12 hour drive to a one hour flight. The whole process is exhausting and stressful.
Exactly I live 600km from the capital. 1 hour flight. Still takes me more then half a day to get to my destination.
I ride my motorcycle most of the times 6 hours door to door. With pit stops on the way. Trains are slow here but I take the sleep train. Get on train 10pm go to sleep and arrive at 5am in the morning :)
I prefer these latter 2 over flying.
Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
#9When comparing "flying then" to "flying now", you need to look at the real cost of the flights. Yes, the experience in economy class has got worse, but the cost of the ticket has also significantly dropped. In 2021 dollars, the cost of a round trip air fare has basically halved since 1979. You could buy a business class ticket now for a comparable price to economy back then.
https://www.airlines.org/dataset/annual-round-trip-fares-and...
https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/history-o...
Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food
#10These kind of articles are always dumb and never make an apples to apples comparison.
It talks about Pan Am in the 1950s.
In May 1952 Pan Am tickets for New York - London roundtrip in economy class were $486. And that was the minimum legal price. Presumably you could find yourself paying more depending on demand.
That's equivalent to $5,584 today.
Google Flights tells me I can get a first class ticket on that route for $4,700 today.
So you're paying almost $1,000 more than a modern first class ticket and wondering why the food is pretty okay.