My memory of my first ever long haul flight was of my brother and I being tucked up into a makeshift bed which two BOAC Air hostesses had thoughtfully made up for us amongst the luggage section on a Boeing 707. Travelling at the time in Tourist Class en route to Hong Kong where my military father was to be stationed, we were not I might add at the front of the plane either. And that descending tight right hand turn into Kai Tak where I could see peoples washing on the line!!

Leaving the BOAC 1960s behind up to around the then state owned BA mid 1970s I recall one instance of an effeminate and highly strung British airways steward, actually without saying a word either, kicking my older brothers foot out the way so he could wheel the duty free trolley past. We would have been teenagers then, again travelling in what was then probably called economy class but dressed in suits and maybe with our ties loosened for comfort. What I definitely remember though was my brothers eyes watering as a result of that painful contact to his shin.

Having said that, in my experience anyway, there were never any cases of air rage or disruptive unruly passengers delaying things and spoiling things for the rest of us. People on board tended to dress smarter and were many times more polite then and generally most airline personal seemed to have, is this the right word? an etiquette about them.

Now to date, to deregulation and all that and to mass air travel for the masses and as a result is the world of air travel now a better place?
Personally, I think the only notable improvements has been in Long haul business class travel as those wow factor hand me downs continue to trickle down from First Class which as a viable travel option still remains to be only feasible for the very few, and
referring to further back in the aircraft, the overall standard of the taste of aircraft food has I think improved over the years, that is though if it's still available.

Economy air travel, long haul or otherwise I think started to go downhill as the larger carriers, especially, either bullied or tried to compete with the smaller budget carriers.
So just because the UK Easyjet or the US Southwest Airlines for example, decides to incur yet another fee for this and another charge and another add on fee for that, it seems then that it is quite all right for any World 3 or 4 star rated airline to follow suit. Sometimes it is a shock to the system when you are expected to purchase a beer or even a cup of coffee on a carrier which may have spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising its First or Business Class on television commercials.

I think Long haul economy class air travel definitely started to go downhill when the then only First class and second 'Tourist Class' cabins turned first to First Class, Club class and economy class; to the hierarchy stratum which we see today of Premier-First, then Business, Economy plus, Economy and then right down towards the very back of the plane discount Economy which in effect is travelling 4th of even 5th class in some cases.
Does being seated this way tightly packed like sardines in the cheapest seats at the back of the aircraft effect the level of service and the way the cabin crew interact with you? You bet it does.

Adding to all this I think the worldwide smoking ban was not a good thing for air travel. Agree or disagree with me but for a smoker that tobacco fix is like a class A addiction and for that person to be deprived of his or her fix for anything up to 15 hours is not pleasant. It's one thing banning all smoking on flights, but for most airports now to even close special smoking areas is in my opinion asking for trouble. At least allow a nervous flyer smoker one cigarette.

And finally how many of us miss that lovely large envelope that used to come through the letter box containing those smart long airline tickets printed with the airlines own logo, together with luggage tags and a printed personal travel itinerary all with compliments from your friendly travel agent.