Allegheni and Ozark and some other regional carriers did offer (in 73?) a joint-visit-usa-pass, stand-by, 60 days (?), 250 US-$ (it was just when, luckily for us, the exchange-rate US$ to swiss frank dropped from longtime 4.32 to 3.NN ((end of the "Bretton-Woods"-agreement of fixed exchange-rates) (today the exchange rate is 1.37!).

I did buy that one, and travelled (with Gislea) to every corner/airport in the US - if I remeber correctly - the flight from Chicago to Oakland had about 7 landings (and 2 change of planes/airlines).

Talk about hot pants on stews!! Flight on Southwest from Houston to Dallas in the '60s:
We take off and the beverage cart comes down the aisle (remember, this is a one-class airline even then). I order vodka on the rocks (my Russian language training taking over); the stew hand me a glass and holds up a half-gallon bottle, says, "say when." Then comes back I don't remember how many times during this short flight. We land in Dallas, and I hear one of the guys in the row behind me say (in a slur that can't be reproduced on a typewriter): "Why don't we jus' stay on board an' go back t' Houston?"

Hey, before there was mileage, you had to have something airline-related to call an addiction.

I thought of another childhood adventure. My father and I would fly between Philadelphia and Miami every Christmas to visit family. We always flew Eastern or Delta nonstop. When I was about 14, I convinced him to fly TWA from PHL to PIT, connect and continue on TWA to MIA. Why? Because I wanted to fly on a 707 (on the short PHL-PIT route!) one last time since TWA was retiring the 707.

International, Frankfurt to BWI, late 50s, early 60s. Back then, I was wearing a uniform and I took the seat Uncle was willing to pay for. My usual choice was last row aisle. We took off, and the FA came along to ask why I was sitting way back there. My answer: "I'm going to be either first or last to be served, so I get the maximum undisturbed time; if you have any spare time during the flight, you'll probably spend it back here and we can get to know each other better; survivors." Sure enough, I was served first, she had a bunch of spare time and we did get to know each other better. Then, as we're about to land at BWI, the pilot comes on: "Folks, there's nothing to worry about, but I've got a little light up here that says we may have an engine fire. Nothing to worry about (again), but I'm going to ask the cabin crew to get you folks ready for an emergency, just in case. There'll be emergency equipment meeting us on the runway." We got the emergency evacuation lecture and then the crew started passing out pillows and blankets. My stew THREW one in my lap, then sat down across the aisle and said, "NOW I know why you want to sit back here!" We landed safely - no fire - and the "emergency equipment" that met us was a jeep with a fire extinguisher in the basck seat that we left a mile behind a couple of seconds after touching down.

Wasn't there an airline based out of JFK or LAG in the 80's called "new York airways" or "Big Apple airways" that was a discount airline trying to complete with the U-S air and delta and AA shuttles to D-C and Boston?
I think Donald Trump (who I like as much as
Merry Flyer likes Sir Richard) bought it, there were a lot of problems and it went belly up.

And then there's Vanguard Airlines that flies
to obscure little airports along the East coast. They got so few flyers they cut routes
(including one from Buffalo to Trenton, the capitalof the greatest state in the world!)
I think they will join the other carriers in airline legend very soon.

In Australia there's a little airline called
Ayers Rock Air. Has one route, several flights a day: Flying around Ayers Rock. A six seater, one really "Rough and tough" guy
promptly got sick. I had fun sitting next to the Aussie pilot who said "if I fall asleep you'll ahve to fly the plane." Having a Foster's earlier I was ready to try anything!
CATMAn

If you get the least bit airsick, the last two seats in a six-seater are NOT for you.. the front seats provide the smoothest ride (lucky you, Catman)

Bringing this puppy to the top, because I thought it was a great thread...anyone who can add anecdotes to it, please do! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I grew up in the caribbean and remember fondly the Pan Am flights we took every summer from Antigua to New York to visit my Grandmother.

The best however were from the Turks & Caicos Islands to the States - some of the carriers that I remember - Mackey Airlines, Red Carpet, Southeast.DC-3's and Convairs.

It was fantastic. It would take 8 hours to get from our Islands to Miami, stopping at every Island up through the Turks & Caicos & Bahamas. At each stop someone would come on with a bottle of rum, lobster sandwiches, conch fritters, or whatever the catch of the day, and share with everyone on board. By the time we reached Nassau all the adults were dancing in the aisles to a boombox that someone had brought onboard.

About 1981 or 82, I flew Eastern Airlines from IAH-ORD. (if memory served me correctly, they Houston was the hub & lots of flights fanned out from there) They had $49 O/W airfares but the catch was either you could not check any bags (or you had to pay extra to check bags--forgot which)& they were redeyes. Basically they were cargo flights & Eastern decided they could make some extra $ by adding pax to these flights. Worked out great for me. $98RT. This was before mileage runs, etc. Ticket was nonrefundable,etc. Could not beat the price! Only did it once.

I flew in a Provincetown-Boston Airline DC-3 around 15-17 years ago, from Logan out to the Cape. That was an experience. I think she was the highest-hours aircraft in commercial service. PBA went bust in the late '80s.

I flew a TWA 707 on a BOS-SFO westbound transcon, called "Night Coach" service with a 900p departure time, in 1979. IT was my last 707 ride; they left domestic US service soon thereafter. It was great not only because of the 707 but it was the first vacation ticket I ever paid for myself. I miss the "Night Coach" transcons; you sure can't depart the east coast for the west at 900p anymore.

I flew EWR-LGW and back on People Express' one lone 747 in 1982 or '83. The kids who served as cabin crew were so proud of that airplane; they'd acquired it from Braniff, where it had been one of the "great pumpkin" planes that flew DFW-HNL. The fare to London on PE was $149 each way and backpackers used to camp for days at EWR's rat-infested North Terminal, waiting for standby seats.

The other great thing about People Express was the way it got us, um, girlfriends. The weekend fare from Burlington, Vermont to EWR was $19 each way. We could pick girls up at home on Sunday morning for a brunch date -- whip them out to the airport -- and two hours later they'd be having brunch in Central Park. Girls duly impressed, relationship sealed. Eventually, though, People Express unraveled so badly you didn't dare make it part of a date you had any hopes for; queueing all night to get home from EWR was kind of a romance-killer.

Piedmont Airlines had a really good, efficient hub at SYD in the mid-80sl they used to fly banks of little twinjets in there and you could make a connection and get going in about twelve minutes. When US ate Piedmont they naturally closed the SYD base and ruined that good thing.

Flying used to be more fun.

When I lived in Albany, I used to fly Mohawk. First it was the high-wing Fairchild's and then they were the first (or one of the first) US carrier to use BAC 1-11s. When they merged with Allegheny, we called it Mo'-Agony.

Three old airlines that I have fond memories of:

MIDWAY (the first): In the old days, they would offer you a free ticket just for getting someone else to join their frequent flyer club (no cost to join, and the new member didn't have to fly anywhere, just enroll!). My wife and I each got three free tickets out of them (the maximum) before they finally cut the promotion off. Perhaps this unrequired generosity helped contribute to their demise?

PIEDMONT: Had some kind of a special deal for a while where you'd get a certificate for one free roundtrip for every three paid roundtrips you took. The thing is, this promotion was not well publicized, but those of us who were "commuting" on Piedmont every week suddenly started getting a steady flow of free Piedmont tickets in our mailbox, and none of us knew why! Because no one knew about the promotion, it probably added nothing to Piedmont's revenue, which in turn probably spawned the modern-day rule that requires us to register in advance for promotions.

EASTERN: Remember the days before frequent flyer programs were automated? On Eastern, you got a book of frequent flyer certificates, and you'd hand a certificate to the gate agent along with your ticket in order to get your miles credited. On TWA, you got a sheet full of stickers that had your FF account number on them, and you'd paste a sticker on the front of your ticket. Eastern and TWA had a reciprocal FF agreement, so you could earn TWA points on Eastern and vice versa. But the Eastern gate agents would let you use both the sticker AND the certificate, so you'd illegally get credit on both airlines when you flew Eastern. (TWA agents would never let you get away with this.) But, to show that we live in a world where morality rules, the unscrupulous Eastern Airline is long dead, while the morally-upright TWA lives on...sort of.

I have very fond memories of flying PAN AM flights 1 and 2 to/from BEY to JFK (with stops in IST/FRA/LHR). We had just finished a family vacation in Turkey and had eaten our fill of Shishkabob(sp) since we were told that was one of the safest things to eat. One week later, I flew Pan Am to JFK and upon leaving IST, was served shishkabob.

On another flight, they did not load enough breakfasts trays in BEY so they were only serving people who asked for breakfast. The people who were served got very funny looks from the people around them who did not realize what was going on.

Does anyone in New England remember Pilgrim Airlines? I believe they were later bought out by Allegheny....

Growing up in Vermont in the 50s, we kids stopped our ballgames to watch the Colonial Airlines DC-3s fly in and out of Rutland Airport.

When I lived in Alaska for a year in the mid-60s, I remember seeing Pacific Northern's connies at Anchorage International Airport.

I once flew my family of four between Newark and Norfolk for a grand total of $200 round-trip ($25 per person, per segment).

I sat next to a very chatty member of the House of Lords between London and JFK on the Laker Skytrain years ago. We bonded while watching Neil Diamond in, I believe, "Coming to America".

Does anyone remember the airline that flew briefly between JFK and Manchester, England, in the late 1980s? The airline had a Scottish-sounding name that I can't recall.

Ah, how I love commercial aviation nostalgia!