Not sure where to post this - mods will move if appropriate I assume.

Say you go to a restaurant and order the 16oz prime rib, but the server comes back with the 8oz. You will usually get:

a) A profuse apology, probably from the manager
b) Offer to replace the entree or comp the one brought in error
c) Free dessert or some other amenity

Say you go to an airline and order the 20-inch wide seat, but they give you the 17-inch. You will usually get:

a) An explanation of why it is only right and proper that they do this;
b) Rushed along by the GA;
c) A long, annoying correspondence with Customer Disservice to get any refund that is due; and
d) Rather than an extra amenity, your free drink and snack basket are history

I'm wondering, was flying ever different? I started flying regularly in about 1988, but I don't really remember that far back. I know that there was a time they tried to make long-distance air travel as luxurious as cruise ships, within the obvious limitations of what's possible. Was there ever a time when service was a race to the top, rather than a race to the bottom? Anyone old enough to remember?

Yes, it was different.

I started flying TATLs at 2, back in 1962.

The downward spiral cannot be blamed on the aielines alone. Look at those sitting around you who demand rock bottom prices.

I've heard that air travel used to be something you wore your Sunday Best on. It was a privilege. Hell, you can watch Pan Am and see some of the differences.

The nostalgia is gone. Like anything commonplace, it's all about squeezing a buck.

I almost never wear anything short of slacks, dress shirt, and tie when I fly. Of course, there IS a dress code for pilots

FAB

I have been flying since I was a child in 1954. It took 11 hours to get from NY to LA via 2 engine prop plane. I flew my first jet in 1960 and was sure that it would never get off the ground without propellers. I was reassured by the kind stewardess who sat down on the seat armrest and gave me Junior Stewardess wings to wear before serving a hot meal and taking my younger brother Into the cockpit to "help the pilot fly the plane." Airline flights were occasions with women in dresses,men in suits, and all on Passengers were servedwith smiling courtesy. That being said, air travel was rare and limited to people "of means" or those with expense accounts. Air travel today is more like long-distance bus travel--affordable compared to the past, crowded, egalitarian. Like service stations where attendants pumped your gas, cleaned your windshield, and checked your oil--all with a smile--modern air travel is no longer to be enjoyed. It can only be endured.

Unfortunately this is no longer an apt analogy. There are infinitely more restaurants than airlines so you have far more options. Both restaurants and airlines know this and respond accordingly. Add the pressure for low fares and the inevitable "fare wars" that occur, it's no surprise that air travel is a commodity now.

I think a McDonald's is a better analogy for air travel these days:

You order a Double Quarter Pounder and receive a regular Quarter Pounder. Then:

a) The cashier stares at you blankly (at best) or is annoyed that you've reappeared (more normal)
b) They add the additional patty or replace the sandwich altogether while pouting or sighing heavily
c) You get nothing else except more calories than you need

My first flight was in 1960 at 3 from NY to Tokyo on a NW DC-6. Needless to say, I don't remember much. The DC-6 was a four engine prop and we lost three of the engines on the leg from Anchorage to Tokyo (my mother told me). We had to emergency land in Hokkaido and a plane was sent from Tokyo to bring us the rest of the way.

I started flying after college in 1978 and what made that different was regulation. There were no FF programs and the fares were regulated. So if a meeting ran over, you really didn't care, you'd just go to the airport and take the next flight (no matter the airline) to where you wanted to go. They'd take your ticket and settle it with the ticketing airline.

The BOS-LGA-DCA shuttles on EA were a bus. You didn't need a ticket to board, the FA's would go down the aisle in flight and take your credit cards and validate a ticket with a credit card imprinter.

I'd travel with an OAG and a stack of AA Airchecks (blank tickets) and I could just walk up to a gate, fill in the airline, flight number and class and just walk on a plane.

It was a civilized world.

It was a world where few people flew.

If nothing changed, no way would I be flying today. I suspect that is true of many FTers. But not all. So, many of us would not want it to go back to the way it was. But some would.

we flew a lot in the late 60's early 70's . it was lousy. double booked seats at least a dozen times. no seats a couple times(got walked off a CO plane onto the tarmac!!!). would book decent seats together, and end up in the middle of a row with kids. no room on a tatl from munich, so we were put on a local to someplace else in germany, put in quaranteen for about 6 hrs, then flew home. quaranteen in purto rico when something was wrong. overbooked all the time. no comp for anything.

in central america, saw a couple friends told to leave the plane. they said stuff it, and the two guys pulled a gun and said "get off the plane"

got on a plane for new orleans from san predo sula, and realized it was going to houston(every body else on the plane went to houston)

As has been mentioned in the posts above, flying in the U.S. at least WAS different - and much nicer - back before deregulation. Since the CAB set prices and awarded routes, the best way U.S. domestic airlines had to differentiate themselves was service. I would however disagree a bit that flying back then was limited to people of means or business travelers. Us middle class folk flew too - just not as often, perhaps.

On a worldwide level, one area where flying has definitely improved is in International First and Business Class. Lie-flat beds are vastly better than the reclining seats of yesteryear. On the world's better airlines, meal service in international First Class is served when you want it, not when the airline feels like serving it.

I recall (being old enough to remember) my first flights in the 50s. Flying then was the province of the "elites" of the time, folks of means, businessmen in key positions, and professionals. Aside from a few exceptions, Icelandic, charters, group tours, etc., the presence of the "common herd" was almost unnoticeable.

The dynamics of change, economic, social and practical, had become far advanced long before deregulation. The real instigator was simple, more airplanes to haul more passengers, farther, faster, and at less expense. Prosperity induced more airplane-fixated investors to plow vast sums into new and expanded airlines and services, a tactic emulated by government-owned airlines, as fixated upon prestige, recognition and the hope for profit as any private investor.

The need to fill seats inevitably reduced fares and expanded economy cabins and flight schedules and routes. Public and corporate pressure had begun to reduce fares long before US deregulation.

As airlines, air service and airliners changed into "Greyhounds with wings" designed to be available and affordable to larger segments of the populace, all sorts of wild predictions of "luxury routes and flights" filled the media, but with rare exceptions, not a few failures to thrive, and economic reality turned out to be little more than pipe dreams. Even the front cabins designed to serve those willing to pay the price, ended up filling empty as as a benefit for frequent flyers, be they elites or the redeemers of awards. Meanwhile, economic reality and what were at first regional demands brought examples such as WN and eventually the European "budget' carriers.

Looking back at history, what has happened to air travel is little different from the path of almost every other mode of transportation, victims of their own success. In the US, plentiful and cheap horses enabled more folks to own and ride or harness horses, at the same time causing fine, expensive horses to become a niche market, as the folks of means turned to horseless carriages.

Hey! My husband and I still dress nicely on flights. Times are not so now that we buy a whole new suit/outfit for the trip, but no "couch potato" stuff. I think the reason why it's gotten so lax is the fares are so much cheaper now. Anyone can afford a flight, and the people that used to take Greyhound are now in economy. I am all for raising ticket prices. Why not? That way airlines can afford to put one seat in the place where they now have crammed two, or three.

But yes, air travel has really changed. It used to be a luxury thing, and I recall my mother buying us kids whole new outfits just for the trip. We'd get punished if we spilled anything on them too! We had to be on our best behavior. Things were much different. You called the FA a stewardess, and they were all very glamorous. Passengers were treated very well- but people respected manners back then too. Real forks and knives, glasses that "clink", and souvenirs of the airline that you could take home and were worth keeping!
There was no complaint about the seat in front of you reclining so much- as it didn't really impact your space. When people are crammed into tiny spots they get antsy, like rats in a cage.

I think I can sum it up like this: flights were more expensive, and less flights were taken, therefore when someone did fly it was "special".

On the bright side, flying in Asia and Europe
is still fun and TSA-style abuse is not common.
The way I see it, trains will start getting faster and more abundant
where there is higher population density (eg I-95 corridor).
So people won't be needing to fly from, say, Chicago to NY City.
Or Miami to Philly. Buses will also become more popular as gas approaches
$5/gallon.
This will put less drain on airlines to accommodate everyone, cattle class,
24/7. Airport security will take on a softer tone as costs approach $1 trillion with no successful terror busts.
Also, JFK and La Guardia and LAX can't maintain their 1960's
design. Sooner or later they will be demolished and replaced with
modern airports that are more streamlined and pleasant to be in.

My memory of my first ever long haul flight was of my brother and I being tucked up into a makeshift bed which two BOAC Air hostesses had thoughtfully made up for us amongst the luggage section on a Boeing 707. Travelling at the time in Tourist Class en route to Hong Kong where my military father was to be stationed, we were not I might add at the front of the plane either. And that descending tight right hand turn into Kai Tak where I could see peoples washing on the line!!

Leaving the BOAC 1960s behind up to around the then state owned BA mid 1970s I recall one instance of an effeminate and highly strung British airways steward, actually without saying a word either, kicking my older brothers foot out the way so he could wheel the duty free trolley past. We would have been teenagers then, again travelling in what was then probably called economy class but dressed in suits and maybe with our ties loosened for comfort. What I definitely remember though was my brothers eyes watering as a result of that painful contact to his shin.

Having said that, in my experience anyway, there were never any cases of air rage or disruptive unruly passengers delaying things and spoiling things for the rest of us. People on board tended to dress smarter and were many times more polite then and generally most airline personal seemed to have, is this the right word? an etiquette about them.

Now to date, to deregulation and all that and to mass air travel for the masses and as a result is the world of air travel now a better place?
Personally, I think the only notable improvements has been in Long haul business class travel as those wow factor hand me downs continue to trickle down from First Class which as a viable travel option still remains to be only feasible for the very few, and
referring to further back in the aircraft, the overall standard of the taste of aircraft food has I think improved over the years, that is though if it's still available.

Economy air travel, long haul or otherwise I think started to go downhill as the larger carriers, especially, either bullied or tried to compete with the smaller budget carriers.
So just because the UK Easyjet or the US Southwest Airlines for example, decides to incur yet another fee for this and another charge and another add on fee for that, it seems then that it is quite all right for any World 3 or 4 star rated airline to follow suit. Sometimes it is a shock to the system when you are expected to purchase a beer or even a cup of coffee on a carrier which may have spent several hundreds of thousands of dollars advertising its First or Business Class on television commercials.

I think Long haul economy class air travel definitely started to go downhill when the then only First class and second 'Tourist Class' cabins turned first to First Class, Club class and economy class; to the hierarchy stratum which we see today of Premier-First, then Business, Economy plus, Economy and then right down towards the very back of the plane discount Economy which in effect is travelling 4th of even 5th class in some cases.
Does being seated this way tightly packed like sardines in the cheapest seats at the back of the aircraft effect the level of service and the way the cabin crew interact with you? You bet it does.

Adding to all this I think the worldwide smoking ban was not a good thing for air travel. Agree or disagree with me but for a smoker that tobacco fix is like a class A addiction and for that person to be deprived of his or her fix for anything up to 15 hours is not pleasant. It's one thing banning all smoking on flights, but for most airports now to even close special smoking areas is in my opinion asking for trouble. At least allow a nervous flyer smoker one cigarette.

And finally how many of us miss that lovely large envelope that used to come through the letter box containing those smart long airline tickets printed with the airlines own logo, together with luggage tags and a printed personal travel itinerary all with compliments from your friendly travel agent.

My dad worked for Delta (well, it was Western Airlines when he started) for 35 years. My family, of course, flew non-rev, and as was the case back in those pre-deregulation, pre-frequent flyer miles era, we often got to sit in First Class. I remember that even as a 10 year old, I had to wear kid slacks and a kid sports jacket. In fact, when a friend from jr. high told me he was flying in First (revenue), I warned him that he had to wear a jacket and tie or he wouldn't be let on! I simply didn't know any better.