I was just a few days short of my 22nd birthday. Flew UA from CLE to MAN via ORD. I found the flights completely unremarkable (except for the 'free' beer on the int'l leg) which is odd since I became a certified white-knuckle flier for a few years soon after that. But the travel bug was stronger than the phobia, so I learned to work through it.

I don't remember my first flight, but I'm told it was out of MKC shortly before MCI opened.

lockheed electra, laguardia to tampa on national airlines in 1959 or 1960

it seemed like 5 hours- and the damn plane "thrummed" the entire way- the vibrations were awful- just awful- and there was hot summer weather-so we bounced around- and people could smoke anywhere

then i wound up going to school in michigan also on a turboprop- (capital airlines vickers viscount) which i hated so much i began to drive- 10 hours flat out overnight- two stops for gas (at 24.9cents a gallon)

we avoid piston engine and turboprops whenever possible- but a BNI AXA/SXM is easy- i can hold my breath for the entire flite!

Nope. I was about six months old. CRW to IAH (or HOU?) via some hub, I imagine. This was the start of a long trend of not paying attention to the safety announcements.

Which first?
 

Why does OP assume first flight is always an airline? Or is this only about first airline flights? Catching the bug is a whole different thing.

My first airplane ride as a pax was in an Air National Guard C-123.

I caught the aviation bug next with my first flight in the front left seat of a Cessna 150 Aerobat. I always thought a first lesson was easy on the newbee, kind of a sightseeing trip around the pattern. Not with a ex-Navy FI. "Push the nose over till you get 130. Then pull the control back till it hits you in the stomach and HOLD IT THERE." Silly newbee: "What's that going to do?" FI: "Don't worry, I never do anything that will hurt me or my airplane." :D Wheeeee. If a clueless newbee can do a loop, this flying straight and level is going to be easy. Very wise FI. 30 hours later and I got a PPSEL.

Lastly a first commercial flight. This is the South. You can guess the next part: Eastern. . .to. . . ATL. Probably a 727.

Probably because this board primary consists of frequent (airline) fliers. It's mainly about miles & points. :) Sure there's some overlap...I know there are some pilots that post regularly here, and I'm sure some military folks, but the primary focus is airline travel.

But we all like aviation to some extent, so I don't think anyone has a problem with a non-airline story. :)

My first non-airline flight in the mid 1980's. STJ-MCC-HNL and back in a C-130. (STJ = St. Joseph, MO and MCC = McCellan Airport, near Sacramento.)

First flight I remember was on Pan Am into CDG when my family moved overseas for my Dad's first State Department post. We took the train to Brussels (final destination). I distinctly remember dressing in my Sunday dress and my brothers wore dress shirts with ties. This was in 1978.

I absolutely do remember, and I remember the trip very well. It was a trip from the old LAX, which is down the street from the "new" LAX. I was 3-yrs. old. It was 1961, and we boarded a PanAmerican flight. There was a PanAmerican jingle that my sister and I were singing during the flight that the flight attendant taught us. She also gave us PanAm wings. I got the window seat.

This was a multi-leg trip. We stopped in Mexico City for a few days. I even have old home movies of me climbing the pyramids there and of being on the boats in the floating gardens.

From there we took a turbo-prop to Nicaragua and stayed there several months with my maternal grandfather. I got hit by a motorcycle there and still carry a scar over my right eye which is etched into part of my eyebrow. It makes me look really macho :D I remember my eye being stitched up as I looked up at the ceiling in the hospital. There was also a big flood that year in Managua and I remember several feet of water coming into the homes.

From there we went to Costa Rica to be with my paternal grandfather, again in a turboprop. We landed at the old airport in San Jose which is now a park. La Sabana park used to be La Sabana airport, and the museum in that park is actually the old terminal building, though it looks like a Spanish mission with a bell tower, which was the control tower. Irazu volcano erutpted while we were there.

M8

The first flight I can remember is COS-DEN on an Aspen Airlines propeller plane (was it a turboprop or piston? Circa 1983). We had to walk out onto the tarmac and up the little stairs to the plane. Then, from DEN to DTW on a UA 727. I remember getting little wings from the Stewardess (as they were called then). I always remember sitting ALL the way in the last or very close to the last row in those 727s, and my mom smoking on the plane. I also seem to remember Salisbury Steak to eat and asking my mom why we never ate that at home, and that AS SOON as my little brother and I saw that cart coming down the aisle, we put our tray tables down, even if it took 30 minutes to get to us!

You still can walk up to the fence at BLF and watch the planes. I've done that with my 5 year old son a few times.

My first flight was on Eastern, May 1979, BUF-ATL-RSW. Flew on vacation, mom took me out of school for a week my sophomore year. I remember the layover on the way down in ATL, as my aunt who lived there was able to visit.

Chicago to Kansas City during a fare sale on some airline (can't even recall the name of it) but it was like $39 round-trip - me and my honey went - and I actually enjoyed KC, too - went to the Plaza and Houlihan's for steak. I didn't acquire my fear of flying until many flights later, strangely. :D

Lockeed Constellation (Pan Am or TWA) Orlando (I think) to New York, TWA or Pan Am, 1959 (I was 5).

My father got a kick (for years afterward) about me referring to the plane as a "three things up".

Mine was in 1979 or 80 on TWA. We flew LIT-STL-CMH. I can't remember what kind of plane it was - maybe a 727 or DC-9? I was 5.

I think my first flight was in 1966, Detroit to Fort Lauderdale, on a Delta Convair 880.

summer of 1946 from Los Angeles to Cleveland on United (DC-3 I think). I must have made 6-8 stops (or more) along the way. I had just turned 5 and remember I loved the take offs and landings.