Centurion: There was also a heleport at 57th(?) which was on a wharf on the East Side. I used Battery Park more often because I was attending depositions at a firm at the very south tip of the island. I could leave a meeting at 4:45pm and be on the 6pm Transcon from JFK to LAX. Try that today.

Ah, those PanAm memories! I flew regularily with them throughout the 80's. I didn't have a chance to fly in their glory days, but the early 80's weren't bad. They had a womderful upgrade policy (yes, all fares were upgradable as far as I can recall). Besides that, platinum members got one class upgrade when the ticket was purchased. I bought a $129 transcon economy ticket which was upgraded to Bus at purchase. I then managed to talk myself into an upgrade at check-in in LAX, so I flew first for $129. Not bad! Their transcon breakfast was something to die for!

IIRC Platinum (their highest level) was something like 50,000 miles per year, so it wasn't too difficult to achieve. But another poster was correct in that you had to get to a certain level each year to qualify for the next year. If you didn't qulify, you lost your miles.

I wasn't so lucky. I cashed in my Pan Am miles for a domestic award certificate on Pan AM, good for a year. Within that period, Pan Am folded and Delta took over Pan Am's FF program. I called Delta about my Pan Am award certificate, they said it was only good on the routes Delta took over, namely the Northeast shuttle, which made the certificate useless to me living in the Midwest. They wouldn't recredit the miles either.

Didn't Pan Am charge a one-time $35 fee to join their frequent flyer club? (NOT the club room; I'm talking about the frequent flyer program, the same one that was free on every other airline.) I have a very strong memory of adamantly refusing to pay the $35 and avoiding Pan Am because I wasn't a member. I thought they lifted the fee right before they tanked.

Amazing, the flawed knowledge and bad memories.

Platinum on Pan Am was 30,000 base per year. As a plat you could call up for a one class free upgrade 72 hours before flight time, the upgrade was not at booking time (unless of course it was within the 72 hours).

It should be noted that in their last 12-18 months of existance (Pan Am 1 that is), the lowest three classes were eliminated from the Plat upgrade program.

Sorry to say it but only uninformed fools cashed in miles in the time before they tanked. there were several reasons for my statement:

1) No airline of Pan Am's size/impotance had ever been able to collapse like this. 18 months before the fall, UA bought the LHR routes for about $400 million AND put up a $300 million guarantee to protect Pan Am tickets.

2) It was assumed by everyone that UA, DL or NW would absorb Pan Am routes AND the program. This was stated by all suitors.

Also, the Pan Am rules on earning or losing (as stated above) were pretty much the same as everyone else at the time. Non-expiring miles or activity every three years to keep the account alive are mostly inventions of the 1990's.

The chopper service was to from the Pan Am building until summer 1977 when the big crash happened. After some time it was re-instated from the East River heliport, next to the Queensboro bridge. They did try helis to/fr BAttery Park on and off, but never lasted too long.
Pan Am stopped charging for their program in 1985 or so, at the time there were other airlines in the world that also charged. It was not just before they tanked as asserted above

Didn't UA buy the Pacific routes?

UA bought the Pan Am pacific routes earlier. They bought the LHR route in late April on 1991

I seem to recall that the chopper accident on the Pan Am Building involved blades flying off and killing people both on the pad and on Vandebilt Avenue below. The aircraft itself remained on the pad.

PanAm stil had pacific routes June-1991 whenI was bumped from a America West 747 flight out of PHX to a PanAm 747 out of LAX to HNL. It must of been close to the end.

Most of the helicopter services ran to/from the East 60th Street Heliport (dail services). Anyone traveling in J or P on -- even if traveling on upgrades! -- could use it. If I recall, the WorldPass application fee included the first 10k miles free, enough for an upgrade. It was pretty easy to buy BOS-JFK roundtrips for $40, add on the $35 WorldPass fee -- and get to use the helicopter.

Flights to/from Battery Park were started after the E 60th services and op'd only on weekdays.

The best deal with WPass -- up until '86 if I recall -- was that awards were not capacity controlled. PA got into big trouble because miles had to be redeemed within 3 years (I think) -- As a result, right before a 30 June deadline, they had an inordinate number of pax using freebies in first internationally, filling up planes and totally killing yields. ouch.

I just went back and checked my 1986 calendar book. (NOTE TO THE YOUNGER GENERATION: We used written, pen-and-paper calendar books before PDAs came along.) In 1986, I began a fifteen-year period of serious business travel, and on one business trip that year I ran from one ticket counter to another, gathering membership applications for all the frequent flyer programs. (NOTE TO THE YOUNGER GENERATION: This was before the Internet, when you had to get an application, fill it out, and send it through the mail -- or hand it to a gate agent who invariably lost it.) My Frequent Flyer calendar page shows that I was a member of every major domestic airline frequent flyer program EXCEPT Pan Am, which I declined because of their membership fee. There may have been other airlines in the WORLD that charged such fees, but among domestic airlines of that time Pan Am was unique.

In 1984 I flew across the Atlantic about 10 times. The first of those flights was in February of that year and I specifically remember NOT joining Pan Am because of the "fee" involved.

In 1986 about the time they sold their routes, they revamped their FF programme and dropped the fee. I know I never paid a fee, and believe it or not I still have my FF card from that time and it expired in early 1997 (no, I do not save all my expired cards, but that one surfaced a few years ago, and I didn't toss it due to the curiosity value).

That being said, I do remember that I took a trip to Rome in March/April 1986 and was still not a member. I do know that I later managed to get retroactive credit, therefore I would surmise that they changed the programme in mid 1986.

Prior to taht date it had a very genric name like the FF Progrram, while later it became Worldpass.

Also, at that time Pan Am was BARELY a domestic airline.

Actually, no.

The sale of its Pacific Routes to United by Pan Am occurred during my tenure as a UA SFORR reservation agent (Feb 85 to Mar 87), most probably in 1986. While PA may have retained LAX-HNL service, if your recollection is accurate, the international Pacific route sale had long been consumated.

Unfortunately for the people of Guam, PA had just dropped HNL-GUM service, so UA did not exercise its authority on that route, and only serviced GUM (and SPN) from KIX (Osaka) briefly starting in 1994.

It was most definitely after the summer of 1985, because I took PA to Tokyo from the East Coast. I remember it distinctly, because one of the engines caught fire over Canada, and ceased to function. We had to dump fuel and make an unscheduled stop in Anchorage for a few hours.

The only other time I've had to do an unscheduled landing was with CO coming back from GRU, where we did an emergency landing in the Amazons.

Did some research. Sale was in 1985, but UAL didn't start flying the Pan Am Pacific routes until February, 1986.