Why flying stopped being glamorous

Another interesting thing is that nowadays most modern airlines lose money on flights, and make all their profit from the points & rewards card system. So they're basically credit card companies that do flying as a side hustle.

There's an old saying in New York "If YOU can get into Studio 54, then it's not Studio 54 anymore." Flying stopped being glamorous as soon as an average person could afford a ticket. Then it became a bus in the sky.

I remember my first flight in 1977 -- I was 9 and our family was flying from NY to Bermuda. Mom told me that I had to get a new "outfit" for the flight because people dressed up for flying. We were in coach, but had TV dinner style trays served to us with a hot meal (no one asked for money or a credit card). I dreamed to be a "stewardess" when I grew up...then I grew up and thought NO THANK YOU! Times change and everything comes down to dollars and cents. Great video!

My grandmother was a flight hostess with Continental back in the early 60s. As she said, what a time it was to fly. Everything was lavish and over the top on pretty much any airline you chose. She still has her Continental flying wings pin. She met my grandfather by chance at LAX after a storm delayed their flights, and after a few dates they were married in 1968 in Vegas. Man, what a time to be alive it was then.

People are surprised with how glamorous it was to fly coach back then but perhaps they don't realise that it was as expensive as first class is today!

What bothers me most about air travel isn't the amenities, it's the delays and security theater. It's not uncommon to spend more time in air terminals than in the air. And the lousy TSA doesn't make that experience any better.

I started flying in the 50s. On my first unaccompanied flight from London to Madrid when I was 7, my grandparents didn't get the telegram telling them the flight number of my flight, so I was left alone at the baggage carousel until one of the stewardesses saw me, took pity on me, and took me to her house till she could find my grandparents the next day. That would be frowned upon today. Since then, I have flown extensively throughout 4 continents, from DC3s to Concordes (I have 23 flights on the Concord) and even allowed to sit in the 1st officer seat flying out of Amman until we arrived in Heathrow. I once flew from JFK to LHR on New Year's Eve and was the only passenger on the flight, -it was a lot of fun. I have lived it all. I used to love the excitement of taking off, knowing that something new would be waiting for me when I arrived. That all has changed, as you have pointed out so eloquently. I no longer fly commercial as it is too...unhumanizing. Besides I'm retired.

Okay, thank you for this. When I was very young, my mom and me had to switch planes along with a bunch of other passengers. I remembered there being a pong table on this plane, but for the last several years now, in looking that up, I could never find any references of this being a thing. I thought it was my imagination or a dream I remembered.

As a long retired pilot I was set to gig you on minor errors, but you did a great job. That was the environment. In the 70s, experts were opining that a 70% system load factor was the max possible. Crandall (American) put that to rest with his 'yield management ' system that he learned during his time at Hallmark. The irony is that the Kennedy-Cannon Deregulation Act was supposed to lead to more competitors than the "Legacy 12". Instead, over the long run, it has led to fewer.

Hell, flying in the 90's was glamorous compared to now. Bags were free to check and hot meals were served on 3-hour flights!

I flew for the first time in the early 60s on a PanAm plane—not a jet. The stewardesses were very kind. Even in the 70s we got real meals on china plates with silver cutlery. Now I feel like a nuisance to the airlines, jammed in with only the food and drink I brought along myself.

Originally airlines had to compete with passenger rail so they had to offer these luxurys, after almost all passenger rail ceased to exist (exept for some amtrak lines) suddenly there wasn't any competition and alot more people chose to fly

Every moment of interaction I’ve had, as a customer, with the airline industry in the last 10 years has been misery. Everything. Shopping for tickets, paying for tickets, managing luggage, waiting here, waiting there, crowding in over here, hearding into the tube, packing into a pathetic seat, dealing with fellow customers, trying to resolve an issue, facing unexpected costs, all of it, every part of this industry is awful. I do everything I can to avoid this type of travel now.

It lost the glamour, but then again in the 60s tickets were so prohibitively expensive most people simply weren't able to experience flying ever, or did so only for a honeymoon or a funeral. So it's not like the transition for most people was "fly glamorous or fly cheap", it was "take a bus or fly cheap". People still can fly first today, but few opt to pay cash to do so.

My first memory of life was being on an airplane at 6 years old alone. Under the care of the crew. They were quite kind. Today, I couldn't fathom sending a child alone across the transatlantic. Times have changed how trusting were parents that shuttled children across the world like if you were riding a bike around the block.

Yesterday my flight from Denver to San Jose left the gate after dark just as a snowstorm moved in. Ice accumulation, blowing snow, very low visibility. There was some delay while we got de-iced, and flying westward through the storm was a bit bouncy, and so we were a little late arriving in San Jose. At every step the crew told us what was going on and apologized for things they needed to do for our own safety. I think that's a pretty good deal.

I just had a flight aboard Malaysian Airlines from Kuala Lumpur to Haneda in Tokyo. Had a coach window seat without anyone beside me in the other two seats. Poor man's business class! Best flight I've ever had. The cabin crew kept serving me wine also. Winning!

I feel like it's a whole journey vs destination thing. I feel like flying used to be treated more as an experience in itself, whereas now it's simply a means to an end - a way to get from point A to point B. Treating it as purely a mode of transport encourages lower prices so you have more to spend at your destination, but equally it encourages a steady degrading of comfort and experience, because your only goal is to pass the time until you get to where you want to go. The problem is that when you combine it with the torturous (and largely excessive) security process, unless you're going somewhere inaccessible by other means, you don't really save much time, and you arrive at your destination tired, grumpy, and with a massive crick in your neck. Plus you probably got groped by a stranger in the process. Flying nowadays is DEEPLY unpleasant, and I think they've started to reach a critical point where the price is no longer the issue. I think they need to simplify check in and security, make airports less depressing, and stop scrunching the seats closer and closer together. I would be willing to pay more for all of those things. I just want to be able to go on holiday without arriving in intense physical and mental discomfort.

The 70’s, 80’s and early 90’s were the best flying years for me. Every year I would take a champagne flight to Hawaii. The packages were reasonably priced. The true downfall of glamorous flying was when the budget and no frills airlines showed up. They literally turned the airlines into flying Greyhound buses. And the passengers started to reflect that trend.

I recently did something I never thought I would do in my life as a frugal individual: I paid for a first class ticket on a long distance flight because I knew the coach section of that airline was terrible. I can't afford to do it regularly, and all I got was a wider seat, slightly more legroom, and an actually decent meal. All of these things were what coach flying was just 10-15 years ago. I still remember Continental's Gordon Bethune crowing about how Continental still served "Meals at mealtime". That was in the early 00's. Nobody does this at all now.