Originally Posted by
Artpen100
Peoples Express (no reservation, you just got on and they would come down the aisle with a credit card machine)? Good times.
You definitely made reservations on PE (advance reservations for the cheap EWR-LGW 747s used to sell out in minutes) but paid on board. In those pre-Internet, pre-app, pre-kiosk days you had to get on the phone and wait to book, or have your Main Street travel agent run that gauntlet for you. The old Eastern Air-Shuttle (LGA-DCA, LGA-BOS) was no-reservations, walk up and go, hourly service, guaranteed seats (they kept second-section aircraft warmed up and standing by, including Lockheed Electras until the early '70s) but you paid before boarding.