I Miss People Express
 

Maybe this is nostaligia talking; but, I do miss the days of People Express. Yeah, I knowm they had challeges; but, I always thought the challenges were that the ideas were far ahead of the technology available.

Oddly enough the air carriers seem to be racing to be a People Express; but, PE at least let you know right up front, you pay for what you use and you don't for what you won't.

Their are pretenders in the market; but, PE had a business plan that was way ahead of it's time. Heck, they put EWR on the map. If someone with deep pockets had a hankering to start something like this with say a TTN as a base, and had a K.I.S.S. strategy, it could be scary good.

Yeah, perhaps an EasyJet approach; but, the Europeans are always a step ahead of us and the model works and even co-exists well with legacy carriers.

They had BOB - buy your ticket onboard. Could you imagine that today. :eek:

dh

The great thing about today, with internet and other advances, they could nearly get away with a skeleton staff, essentially just to handle baggage as you would buy tickets online, seat assign online, order food online, check-in online and at the airport just give the counter your luggage.

Great paint job too

http://www.airliners.net/photo/PEOPL...43B/1344011/L/

People Express....I remember flying them from PWM to EWR in 1984. What did they call that terminal—it wasn't Terminal C then. Wiki says it was the North Terminal. That rings a bell.

I remember the last minute flight was cheap....like $25 in mid August. That was my first flight with them when I was 14. I went to a camp in Maine which usually hired buses (Trailways type) to take the campers home to the New York area at the end of the season. There was also a Boston bus. Well that year, they combined the Westchester and NYC buses into just one bus but there were maybe 5 more campers than room on the bus so they asked for volunteers to fly home. I remember raising my hand ASAP. :D

Wow- does that bring back memories! They had oversized luggage bins because they wanted to make it easy to bring your bags on board rather than pay to check them. I remember flying one plane from Newark to Pittsburgh on which the exits were labeled "Ausgang". And yes, it was the North Terminal at EWR that they used. I even flew them to Brussels on business once. Hey, Coach is Coach.

Somehow they got it right with their up-front, always been this way, a la carte pricing. It just seems tackier to start out as a full-service business model and then start cutting out services previously included in the ticket price, which is what the legacies have done.

Yep the EWR North Terminal. I fondly remember dodging the hungry rats scurrying among the pax. :D

Empty airplanes from EWR to YMX - Mirabel was an interesting experiment.

And F on PE1 and PE2 to LGW was a pretty nice deal. Even with the FA's bringing around the credit card cruncher to charge 20 bucks for the buffet spread! Whatever happened to Rachel's brownies?

Too bad Frank Lorenzo got his clutches on PE and killed them. :(

We could use an airline like that right about now.:cool:

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People Express holds a special place in my heart as the first airline I ever flew -- PHL-BOS in early 1985. My recollections are hazy -- twelve-year-old me was mainly just thrilled to be on an airplane -- but I can still remember my mother complaining about the intelligence of the customer service agent she had spoken to. In retrospect, not much has changed.

I also remember wondering why it was necessary to stop in Newark on the way from Boston to Philadelphia. How little I understood then.

Sounds like you were on one of their 737-100s they bought off Lufthansa.

MIL wants to go to London with DH and I but will only fly first. We settle on People Express much to her chagrin but.... what a trip, she kept waking me up to get some more drink, after dinner drinks, etc. She thought they certainly beat TWA. They sure beat their price!

I never flew them, but years ago received a video (VHS) 747 - A Pilot's Eye View of takeoffs, landings, inflight in a 747 cockpit. All of it was filmed on PE. I don't remember what year I got it, but I think it was just shortly after PE went under. I had vaguely remembered seeing signs for PE at an airport somewhere but knew nothing of them at the time. Sounds like an interesting experience.

I think I still have that video around the house somewhere.

I tend to agree that in some instances I wouldn't mind at all an airline like that, as long as they're upfront about the extras and the ticket price itself actually is significantly lower. It's the legacies that start to charge extras for previously free items, yet without any real decrease in the base fare, that is aggravating.

In this day and age, an airline such as people express would be a novelty. Great advertising feature and people would flock.. but a couple of bad days where people don't show up, then the airline and its' planes will be part of the local museum. Great in theory, but hard to make economically viable.

I especially miss the low fares. I could fly to EWR for under $100.00 roundtrip trip with no advance purchase rules. If I want to fly to EWR tomorrow it would cost me over $1,000.00 rountrip. I am doing the NYC half marathon next Sunday,I have not booked my flight beciase EWR fares was over $400.00 roundtrip even a month in advance so I will either use miles or hope for a weekend special.

Very nostalgic I remember the credit card machines on the aisle carts so you could buy the ticket on the plane. Just like on a train. I used to fly them when I was in college in the 80s. A couple of friends of mine sat out one day at OHare getting bumped five times in a row ended up with 5 free flight coupons each. They were the talk of the college back then, before the days of commercial internet etc.