Old-school airline commercials
August 26th, 2009 at 11:19am Thomas V. Bona
Remember a time when flight attendants were called “stewardesses” or “hostesses” and wore revealing skirts (and sometimes hot pants?). Remember when you could smoke on a plane? Remember when fancy food was served on china (and flights were really expensive and generally for business travelers only)?
I don’t, though I did see a scene on “Mad Men” from that era. But the fine folks at Mental Floss have compiled a list of eight retro airline commercials that show, well, a different time.
My favorite is the Eastern Airlines one (and not just because I fondly remember the airline), with “dese guys” baggage handlers:
Anyone fly back in the era shown in these commercials? Was it really like they advertized? Was flying better then or now? My take is that it’s more affordable now, and thus the fancy amenties are gone. Airlines target families, not just business travelers (and business travelers are guided by corporate to choose based on cost more than … what is that in one commercial … lobster?).
Also, flight attendents are treated with more respect. Man, Don Draper would hate it.
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2 Comments Add your own
1. Chuck Sweeny | August 26th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Before deregulation airline flights were rather exclusive. Airlines couldn’t compete on price, so they offered various creature comforts.
I flew to London on one of the first Pan-Am Boeing 707 flights, and when they talk about vibration-free flight, they’re right!
The previous year I’d flown to London on a DC-7-B, the last of the giant, propeller airliners, and it was NOT vibration free.
Noisy, too.
2. Stu Bloom | September 1st, 2009 at 10:05 pm
I remember a flight I took in March 1978. It was an AA flight from SFO to ORD. There was an ice storm in Chicago, so the flight was delayed leaving SFO for several hours. In addition, there were a bunch of passengers who were coming from Japan who had missed their connection on TWA and were rerouted onto the AA flight. To compensate for the minor inconvenience, the charges for alcohol were waived. I think I had half a bottle of wine, gratis.
Can’t remotely imagine anything like that happening today.
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