People Express
 

Anyone fly People Express (merged in CO)

You would pay on the plane. I heard bums with no money would take a
flight to Newark and they would be arrested at EWR because they had no money. I had a few occasions where we landed in Newark and the FA's
had no collected everyones fare so we had to wait till this was done even know we were were parked at the gate.

I flew People Express a few times from Detroit to NY (don't remember which airport); Never had a problem and I remember the fare was $29.
It was the only way I could afford to fly back then.
Hardly good old days.

$19 EWR-PIT US AIR (it was a good airline then) couldn't match it. 737 100's

PeoplExpress was big at Newark back in the day. If I remember correctly, CO got some 747s from PeoplExpress that they used for some of the old Australia and New Zealand flights.

Some turbulent CO history around those days.

I flew PeoplExpress with my mom back in their heyday to visit her best friend in BOS. Flew LAX-EWR-BOS-EWR-LAX. Got some rare types out of it. 741 and 731.

Don't ya mean PeopleInDistress?

My family would fly PE IAH-EWR-somewhere else in the NE (possibly PWM). I was too young to recall. The last remnant of PE I remember was flying a PE colored CO 727 in 1994 (not the traditional meatball, but a yellowish gold hue).

My first 3 flights were on Peoples Express, I remember smoking on the plane and all of the DUCT TAPE they used.

Never flew Peoples Express in the early/mid 1980s.

A guy from my small home town in southern IL worked for them.
(If he's lurking here his name is: Timothy Michael B----------)

Don't know what happened to him

Yeah, lots of short haul flights plus one EWR-London (probably LGW) 747 flight in PE First Class (about the same fare as AA-BA coach). My recollection was that it was pretty good flight, although the thing I definitely remember was ordering and buying dinner off a First Class BOB menu. :cool:

flew them once. that was enough.

I flew them many times out of EWR. For a twenty-something living in NYC on a shoestring they were a great value. A few memories...

• You really did pay on board, and so the flights were often overbooked. You needed to get to the gate early to get your seat sticker to ensure a place on board. On one EWR-ORD flight they totaled up the receipts and found they were short one payment. They wouldn't allow anyone to leave the plane unless they could show their receipt.
  
• They were also the first airline to charge for snacks onboard. They had a decent snack box, better than what you get today, for $3 IIRC.
  
• They ran flights 24x7. I remember getting a EWR-DTW flight that departed (on schedule) around 1:30 am.
  
• They operated out of the north terminal at EWR, which increasingly became a zoo as they expanded. It was PE who initiated the construction of terminal C but they failed before the construction was completed. CO bought PE and completed it.

What did PE in was (1) too rapid expansion, which led to unreliable operations, and (2) targeted competitive pricing by the majors. PE was pretty much a flat-price deal, while the likes of AA could offer the same prices on paper, for a full service flight, albeit with more restrictions.

My very first flight on CO was paid for with a PE bump voucher.

i flew them a few times ewr-stl in college. Nothing memorable either way.

As a young boy my family flew PeoplExpress many times to Florida. I remember the North Terminal, paying on the plane and the $19 fares to Syracuse (my father used it to take my two sisters to a pre-college programs there).

I was just happy to be going away and wasn't a "flying snob" yet. :)

- HF

i flew them a few times ewr-stl in college. Nothing memorable either way.

Flew them back and forth to college many times.

In the North Terminal I was always mesmerized by the giant billboard that "flipped" around. It had two sides and "blinds" that flipped to change the content. Hi tech in those days.

My recollection was having fun on the flights and having my money ready.

When it came to lifetime miles on CO, though, those did not count. Perhaps they couldn't find all the old onboard receipts to total them up.