TWA FFB/Aviators - I did like TWA...

hated to see you geaux...

Me too...

Many memories on the TWA L-1011 crossing the Atlantic and just from PHX-LAS doing mileage runs when triple miles were the hit in the late 80s.

Long live our favorite memories, lots of them.

Ah, so nice to see a post on the TWA board. It's been too long since I had to type those three letters together; T-W-A.

I have mixed feelings now about the AA purchase of TWA assets, especially with the entire industry in the tank and AA losing money. I bet the folks who worked in the airline industry just prior to TWA 800 and then into the purchase couldn't have imagined the situation as it is now in their wildest dreams. It might actually have been a blessing in disguise because, for instance, I'm sure there are some JFK based FA's, mechanics, ramp, gate agents who now work for Jet Blue. Nice to at least work for a growing company that seems to know where it's going.

ahh.....my old lover. I still fantasize about you!

The first flight I remember taking was on TWA, flying New York-Palm Beach at age 2 or 3. Alas.

My first flts on TWA were on th "Super Connies" as a child, later was returned home from Europe when in the military on a chartered Super Connie that still had TWA seat covers but was an air charter company....ah fond memories I do have of you.

I proposed to my wife inside JFK T5 (we're still married) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

--North Star Over My Shoulder--
This is a must-read for all who have traveled and loved TW. Author is Captain Bob Buck, a TWA and aviation legend.

Hard to believe it now, but even at the end TWA was the best, or at least a **** sight better than what we see today.

Steak dinners STL-BOS. Incredible transcon cabin service LAX-JFK. Cheap tix courtesy of Lowestfare. About a 90% upgrade score. Using the Ambassador Club on your American Express card. Never lost a bag and never but once (bad tire coming back from Miami) any major delays.

Yeah, I miss em.

The first first class flight i ever took was on a TWA 747 from ord- lax in the early 70"s.
The food and the service, and the general ambience will always be a wonderful memory for me.the upstairs lounge was the essence of CLASS.
I had the good fortune to be in FC on TW 760 lax- lhr in the late 80's and sat with Ann- Margret- well, in the same cabin. Still wonderful food and serivce back then.

I was loyal to TWA (and still am today) since my first flight at two weeks of age on an L-1011. This airline took me overseas, both coasts, to visit family, to travel for work, to travel for school, to commute to college, to funerals. TWA people are the best in the business, and I still make it a point to travel on the ex-TWA flights, with TWA-logo lapel pin on my jacket. Nothing beat those solid-red carpeted walls with white TWA logo... Those great 1979-issued uniforms too. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

"What's the best way to fly today? TWA's the way.... Discover the world, the wonderful world, of T-W-A. Let Trans World Airlines be your host, when you travel the world or fly coast to coast. On a business trip or a holiday, make your reservations on T-W-A. TWA's the way!" - 1960's ad

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by JSeiple:
. Nothing beat those solid-red carpeted walls with white TWA logo... Those great 1979-issued uniforms too. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
</font>

If you are ever in the older terminal at SJC the gate near security (gate 3?) still has the red carpet wall, complete with a working aluminum clock, but the TWA logo is long gone. The 2 airlines I never managed to fly in the 70's & 80's was TWA & Pan-Am, so I never got to experience either in what I assume was there golden age?.

Hi,

TWA was once my favortie Airline. I liked L1011's and TWA had them. So did Delta but DL didn't fly non-stop LAX-IAD. I used to go on TWA894/895 almost every week. Only thing I didn't like was some of the flight attendants who were huffy about not wanting us putting wheeled bags in the L1011 overhead bins. At least DL replaced the verticle bins with more normal ones on some of their L1011's.

Then TWA stopped the non-stop service from LAX-IAD around the time when they sold a bunch of their US to Eurpoe routes. I had so many FF miles and status that I kept flying TWA. They used to have a funky DC9-50 that went LAX-DCA with a stop in STL but the same plane. I used to like it because if it was cancelled there was still an L1011 at 1:30 with a connection to DCA so I wasn't totally burned. I don't know if it was the same DC9 each time but 3 different times on this flight when I was travelling we had to fly at below 10,000 ft for the last hour or 2 of the flight from LAX-STL because the plane would loose pressurization and then we'd sit in STL while they replaced a door gasket.

I finally fired TWA because one morning I was sitting in my 1st class aisle seat in an L1011 and the door was closed, the flight was already 20 minutes past scheduled departure. Then they reopend the door and a gate agent came on board and came to my seat and asked me to move to a middle seat in coach. I said I had a reserved 1st class seat based on their policy of 72 hour in advance upgrade. I showed my boarding pass stub and said that it was more than 20 minutes past scheduled departure let alone 20 minutes before departure and whay would he want to give my seat to someone else anyhow ? He said I had the lowest fare of anyone in 1st so he was asking me to move so some passanger who was connecting to an international flight could take my seat and if I didn't move he would summon security. I got his name and moved. They did get me an aisle. The flight attendants knew me from taking this flight regularly and they brought me a first class meal to my downgraded seat. I wrote to TWA to complain and never received a reply.

So I stopped flying TWA because I got so annoyed when I'd see this same guy each time and switched to Delta for a while but then it became too inconvenient so go UA now. May have to change brands again if they don't turn around soon.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

So many memories...

I started flying TWA regularly in 1990 when my job began requiring me to travel about 20 weeks a year. I remember so many things...flight 845 the +/- 5:30pm JFK departure to STL - typically in an L1011. The times I took the one stop to STL from JFK via PHL. The flight, a 767, would actually take off from JFK and fly about 17 minutes to PHL!!! There were the Transcons...I can't tell you how many satisfying flights I had on 841 JFK-LAX in the 747 after they went to two class service. The upper deck was like flying your own private plane coast to coast. There were of course the trips to Europe...JFK-CDG, LGA-STL-LGW, JFK-AMS-VIE, JFK-FRA and others.

Of course there's all of the special events/vacations where TWA would deliver me to my destination. Honeymoons, taking my grandmother back to her motherland, childern's first air trips, visiting old friends, etc. TWA was always there to get us where we wanted to go...even if it often meant a stop in STL to get us there.

Then there was the trip 'of a lifetime.' Cashing in those 300,000 miles for two first class tickets around the world (on TWA and Philipine Airlines). A great 36 days of seeing the world...that I can thank TWA and the FFB program for.

But through all of that there were the people of TWA...the folks that made the engines turn, the meals warm and the flights on-time. These folks are what made traveling TWA safe and enjoyable.

I always thought TWA was just about the 'right size.' Large enough to get you were you were going, but small enough that if you flew them as often as I did, you could get to know the people. Enough cannot be said or written about the TWA folks. They struggled through tremendous adversity and personal sacrifice to keep the place running, but throughout they demonstrated absolute professionalism and a personal touch that kept you coming back. It's funny, although TWA lacked many of the higher end amenities of an AA or UA at the time, TWA cabin attendants always worked to turn coal into gold and strived to provide high class service. They typically hit the mark.

It was a cold morning in January 2001 when I was sitting in the JFK Ambassadors Club when the news was broadcast that TWA was to declare bankruptcy and be purchased by AA. My heart sunk. I sensed the end was near...and indeed it was. Later that month, I passed the 1,000,000 flight mile threshold in flying with TWA. That made me a 'lifetime' Platinum member in TWA's flyger program. This of course was short lived. I did receive a nice shiny new card for hitting this mark. It serves now as a happy reminder of the kinder days of air travel when Red and White planes were the Queens of the Skies (or Red, Gold, Blue and White if you prefer) and travel was fun.

I miss TWA, her planes, the service and most importantly the spirit embodied in the people of TWA.

I'm a former TWA F/A and I still miss it too! During the 70's and 80's, it was great to work for and wonderful people to work with(until Icahn came along). I have many fond memories of flying out of JFK to Europe and even, briefly, Kuwait. Am happy to hear that many passengers also have good memories of what I thought was one of the best airlines ever.

TWA was a great airline because of its people. I have many fond memories of hopping TWExpress up to JFK to board a flight to Europe, and being able to go to the Ambassador Club in T5 to wait for the flight. Almost all of our flights were in Y, but I was too young to care.

Had a FF Elite card by the time I was 12 or 13, thanks to a lot of flying to visit relatives in the Bay Area (TW had nonstops at the time between SFO-IAD, SFO-BWI, etc...) During college years, the Youth Travel Pack was a great deal, and a great way to build miles flying from coast to coast...

Even in the last few years, most of the employees went out of their way to make us, the passengers, feel appreciated. And provided great service with limited resources. My girlfriend and I will always have fond memories of a TWOne flight STL-CDG, as well as going to Hawaii in style STL-OGG. The STL-CDG flights were taken in December of 2000, less than a month before the takeover, but the food and service were still top notch.

It's terrible that so many ex-TWAers are already gone, and that all the remaining FAs could be laid off in the very near future...I fly AA now because of convenience, but will never have the loyalty to them that I had to TWA...

One of my nicest memories of TW was the way they accommodated my family when there was a seating snafu. We checked in at CDG (spouse and three children) and discovered that our family was seated all over the place. I politely asked if we could be seated together, or at least near each other for the CDG/JFK flt. What a pleasant surprise to find that our entire family was sent upstairs to Ambassador Class so we could all be together. I'll never forget that, nor will my (now grown) children. Also memorable, was the fact that the lead FA on board was the most senior FA in the fleet. She was remarkable. I only wish I could remember her name.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by obscure2k:
One of my nicest memories of TW was the way they accommodated my family when there was a seating snafu. We checked in at CDG (spouse and three children) and discovered that our family was seated all over the place. I politely asked if we could be seated together, or at least near each other for the CDG/JFK flt. What a pleasant surprise to find that our entire family was sent upstairs to Ambassador Class so we could all be together. I'll never forget that, nor will my (now grown) children. Also memorable, was the fact that the lead FA on board was the most senior FA in the fleet. She was remarkable. I only wish I could remember her name. </font>


I might be wrong, but there was a very senior F/A named Dodi?, I think, who was #1 on the seniority list in the late stages of TWA. There was a nice article on her and her crew in the LA Times when they were flying the LAX-DCA route.

socalter. I doubt that Dodi, or the other Very Senior TWA FA's (in both # and age) who recently received a lot of ink) were then on top of the seniority list when obscure2k flew CDG-JFK with "children" who are "now grown".

I too have fond memories of my first commercial trans-Atlantic flight on TWA followed by many more. I still have the card of the receptionist in the CDG Ambassador Club, Maryannick Bizette, who in the '70s went out of her way and far beyond anything expected to help me with a problem I had encountered.

In the early days of trans-Atlantic non-stop jet (707, DC8, 880, 990 and finally 747, I used both PA and TW depending on the schedule and destination, but TW was my favorite. It was always an ego trip and treat to be in the Club in T-5 at JFK awaiting departure for overseas.

Those were also the days when both TW and PA had the 'right' to fly intra-Europe, especially from France and Germany. Each had a fleet of twin-engine metal to connect to cities not served non-stop from JFK or from ORD, LAX and SFO.

What wonderful times!!!

My very first real job was as a TWA F/A. Just out of college, I headed to New York and my dream job back in June '65. I absolutely loved every minute of my time in the sky. I was forced to stop flying after marrying and getting pregnant with child #1. I was part of the Class Action that sued for discrimination in later years. We won that case, but it was bittersweet. I would have loved to go back to flying but had another career and two growing children by the time it was all settled in 1981. Oh, how I miss it still. My heart broke when AA gobbled them up. And flying today is nothing like it was then. I still have my uniform!

First flight as a kid was STL to LAX on a TWA L-1011. Man, that was something else.

Blows away the AA Slug-80's I fly out of STL every week.

Oh how I miss the L-1011 memories. My wife and I traveled almost always on TWA. Miss it much.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Springer:
I still have my uniform! </font>
Can you fit into it . If so EMAIL ME http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I miss TWA, it was the last great airline among the major carriers. I missed the TWA Youth Travel Paks. Though I found a replacement airline, jetBlue, to meet all my travel needs, I still miss TWA because of the friendly inflight crew and also miss flying out of JFK's Terminal 5 becuase it was the coolest terminal I've ever been to. I am still mad that American bought out TWA and a few months later, turn itself into one of the worst airline ever by reducing inflight services. I also miss the meals that they served in first class on TWA, they were the best airline food I had ever ate, even the coach food was decent and good.