What wonderful stories and memories ...

My best memory of a defunct airline doesn't involve flying. I was in my first job out of college with a software consulting firm. We sold an airport passenger behavior simulation study to Northeast. The purchase order had been fully approved orally and had all but the last signature. The final approver was out of town on business but assured us he'd sign on his return. In between, a disastrous earnings report came out and everything, including our study, was cancelled. In fact, most of the passenger service department, including the person we were dealing with, got laid off.

I got a Northeast "yellowbird" pin out of it, though. Delta bought Northeast soon after this all happened. Many of DL's Boston-based flight attendants had come over in the process. Whenever I wore that pin on a DL flight to or from BOS for years afterward, an FA was sure to recognize it and treat me like royalty!

BTW, there's a great airline memorabilia shop at O'Hare. Take the tunnel to the Hilton. Directly opposite where you turn left to the hotel, the shop is on your right. It has stuff like genuine Eastern Airlines golf shirts and a bazillion different kinds of pins. I don't have my yellowbird pin any more - it fell off in Atlanta when a shoulder strap rubbed against it, and I didn't notice until later - but if I were at all likely to encounter someone who would recognize it at this late date, which I'm especially not as I don't fly DL much any more, I'm sure they'd have one.