Remembering Eastern Airlines
 

I imagine many of you ended up with CO as your FF airline from your association with Eastern like I did. While not all my remembrances of EA are fond, many are and I mention a couple here in honor of some of the threads from the 90s that are receiving new posts.

Did anyone take advantage of the unlimited flying specials Eastern offered in the late 70s and early 80s where you could fly anywhere Eastern flew (which included just about everywhere except the moon, Borman notwithstanding) for three weeks for one price. I took full advantage of this program for several years, visiting family in NY and Okla, going to the Caribbean, visiting friends allover the U.S. The first time they offered this in 1977 or 1978, the price for three weeks of unlimited flying was $249!!! The only bad part was that flying out of Seattle the connection for almost everything was through Atlanta. I ended one whirlwind three week trip visiting a friend in San Francisco for New Years. I flew back to Seattle via . . . why Atlanta, of course. My wife and I took the 4.5 hour flight SFO to ATL (first class upgrade - see below) and hopped off the plane, expecting a two hour layover before our flight to Seattle. Turned out an earlier flight to Seattle (which had been scheduled to leave an hour before we arrived) was late and hadn't left yet. There was room available (in first class no less) so ten minutes after we got off the first flight we were on the second one. I recall waking up to the pilot's voice telling us we were starting our descent into Seattle and telling us that until a half hour earlier Seattle and all near by airports were fogged in and the nearest open airport was . . . San Francisco. Lucky we missed a return to SFO on that trip.

The other fond memory was something called "Executive Flyer" status or something similar. Basically as an executive flyer you were entitled to a space available first class upgrade for yourself and a companion. Since this was well before the time when first class was used to reward frequent fliers there was almost always space available - I think I failed to get an upgrade on maybe 2 flights out of probably 100 or more I flew during this time. Coupled together, first class and unlimited flights? How many million flight miles would one have to have under their belt these days to obtain such a bennie? Fifty million?

I remember flying them between San Juan and New York all the time. If it wasn't on Eastern we were flying on Pan Am. All the jokes about Eastern always seemed to be right on the money.

My last flight on Eastern was in the late 80's going from New York to Montreal to catch my flight to Moscow via Aeroflot.

My favorite memory of Eastern was a trip to EZE that I booked using miles... this was before the mileage programs were quite as automated as they are now. At the time, there was a promotion underway for triple RDM, and I received the RDM even though I had used miles to pay for the ticket. On top of that, I got op-upped on the flight home.

To keep the thread on topic, I should comment that I probably still have some of those miles in my OnePass account... :p

I flew Eastern quite frequently during the late 70s and early 80s from BOS to TPA. I do remember enjoying the dedicated Eastern terminal at BOS (Now the DL terminal...) and sitting in the back of the plane in the smoking section with my grandmother.

To this day, the only emergency landing I've ever experienced was on a 727 (?) where the lav basically exploded, and we had to land in PHL to wait for another plane.

My mother, being a consummate business traveller and early adopter miles junkie, made sure that I had an account and accrued miles whenever possible.

An unlimited flight ticket in the hands of a FTer today would be a waste of electrons by the airline. The FTer would be so milage positive in te long run.

"Executive Traveler". I had this status at 17 (in 1983). It was amazing. I was too young to take advantage of the unlimited flight deals you mentioned. I would have certainly made them regret it, like you did.

Yes I and another FTer took advantage of the Unlimited Mileage fare twice (1978 and 1980). We took 36 flights on the second one. I was so dead tired after the first one that I actually slept for 24 hours straight when I got home… and I was 18 at the time!

I too got the triple miles on an award flight (special intro ½ off miles offer) to Rio.

They used to have pretty good service in First. I recall a nice carve on the cart Chateaubriand service from ATL to SEA in the early 80’s.

Oh yes... also got to fly some of the L1011's in the original 2-4-2 configuration in coach (before they 2-5-2ed them)

What was the name of Eastern's FF program?

One of my earliest flying memories was of myself and my brothers running around the PIT Ionosphere Club like banshees. (J/K -- we were actually very well behaved.)

My father made a poor investment in a lifetime membership to the Ionosphere Club. I know that CO offered some sort of "deal" to Lifetime members to enroll CO's Presidents Club lifetime membership for a reduced fee, but he claims not to ever have been notified. By the time he inquired, the offer had long expired.

I also remember that on at least one of their aircraft (don't know which one) they had the party seats in Row 1 which faced Row 2, with a table in between.

I sadly lament the demise of EA. I loved their paint scheme. :)

I remember the fantastic program for 249 $ unlimted travel. I used it in 1976 to explore the US with my wife. The program brought us to states we as students otherwise would not have been able to afford to travel to.

We finished the trip in Guadeloupe after having bought new Hanson ski boots during a summer sale in Phila. We had some stange looks when we deplaned in PTP with the yellow boots.

Oh BTW on night flights we sometimes received a complimentary upgrade and a service level from EA staff which I never find since Braniff is gone on the dreadful legacy carrriers.

Today sad enough we plan our US vacation trips on European airlines to an airport close to our final destination and drive. I have no confidence in the regionals like Colgan Air who pay their FO's 1800 $ a month. How much less do they spend on aircraft maintenance guys ??

OnePass

It has already happened at least once recently...
http://gcmr2005.blogspot.com/

I remember the Eastern kid's meals that were short but wide boxes, and IIRC some of them had Disney branding.

Actually, EA was instrumental in making DisneyWorld successful in what at the time was a pretty undeveloped place. It was also one of the first "Official Airline of" partnerships in the airline business I believe, and I remember for a period when the deal started they had Disney characters on the flights to MCO.

I remember the Disney characters on the boxes, but I don't think that I ever had a Disney character on my flights...but I wouldn't trust my memory. Eastern hit Ch11 not long after I turned 8. I do know from my mother telling me that my first flight was on Eastern - EWR-FLL, in 1981. Mom and her new infant even got upgraded. :)