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Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

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Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

#31

Post by throwawaymaths »

Animats wrote: post #3

Air 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…

It probably actually tastes good too. Iirc, taste buds don't work so well at altitude so all that fancy food prep was wasted on the passengers of yore. Might be worth revisiting on the 787s though since those are pressurized to 1km? Or something

Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

#32

Post by jbandela1 »

leoedin wrote: post #9

When 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-ro…

> You could buy a business class ticket now for a comparable price to economy back then.

And if you buy business class, you end up with a lie flat seat that will likely be better than the economy seat you could buy at the time. In addition, the aircrafts now are more comfortable with much less noise and higher cabin pressures. In addition, flying is much safer now than it was in the 1960s.

Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

#33

Post by johnnymorgan »

rightbyte wrote: post #11
leoedin wrote: post #9

When 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-ro…

> round trip air fare has basically halved since 1979 I don't think that number will hold up if you include square feet of personal space and lbs of luggage that might need extra fees.

Or factor in the loss of purchasing power, along with the shrinkflation.

I love when people adjust for inflation in these debates but don't factor in purchasing power of the dollar comparison.

The ticket price is more expensive now, than 1979.

Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

#34

Post by sokoloff »

Nextgrid wrote: post #24
nine_k wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's another reminder that terrorists have won, and have ruined the flight experience for everyone. You basically get searched in order to board. Nobody agrees to have even the slightest risk of a a plane to be hijacked in exchange of not having all of these security measures (which, in a significant part, are a security theater).

Maybe the fear-mongerers have won instead? There are lots of public places/events that don't require any searches/background checks and where a bomb would yield a significant number of casualties and terror to blowing up a regional jet, yet we don't seem to be having explosions every other day. Maybe the terrorist threat is overblown and is merely kept around as a convenient excuse for more surveillance/repression?

It’s a substantial jobs program as well, making it an additional amount sticky.

Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

#35

Post by sokoloff »

hoseja wrote: post #26
Nextgrid wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the fear-mongerers have won instead? There are lots of public places/events that don't require any searches/background checks and where a bomb would yield a significant number of casualties and terror to blowing up a regional jet, yet we don't seem to be having explosions every other day. Maybe the terrorist threat is overblown and is merely kept around as a convenient excuse for more surveillance/repression?

The terrorists were explicitly inducing the fearmonger response, no?

Yes, but that doesn’t obligate us to indulge them.

Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

#36

Post by WeylandYutani »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #10

These 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 f…

Flying was for the rich until the 1970s. The name "Airbus" describes it perfectly.

Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

#37

Post by gherkinnn »

tsu_tsu wrote: post #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.

Packaging it is fine. Having a clown at security steal my cheese because it is deemed a liquid and therefor a bomb is where the difficulty lies.

Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

#38

Post by rjh29 »

The Asian airlines I've used (JAL, ANA, Singapore, AirAsia) have been pretty damn good. It's hard to mess up curry and rice; you get salad, side dishes, bread, ice cream and alcohol. Many of the dishes are designed by famous chefs, even in economy.

Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

#39

Post by CrampusDestrus »

shapefrog wrote: post #22

NY to LA is ~ 5 hours, which is about as long as you get on the continental USA. Do you really need to eat? Chicago to NY is just over 2 hours - not really enough time for a 3 course meal. If you are doing the 19 hours from NY to Singapore ... the food is pretty good!

People who have planned the trip might no need to eat on the plane, but business clients who might have a tight schedule or hopped onto the flight last minute certainly need the onboard dining

Re: Remembering the Golden Age of Airline Food

#40

Post by omnibrain »

rjh29 wrote: post #38

The Asian airlines I've used (JAL, ANA, Singapore, AirAsia) have been pretty damn good. It's hard to mess up curry and rice; you get salad, side dishes, bread, ice cream and alcohol. Many of the dishes are designed by famous chefs, even in economy.

Thai was great too.

And even the small regional Airline we had for the hop from USM to BKK catered something delicious. (Noodles with prawns)

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