I flew alone for the first time in 1971 from Philadelphia to Miami on Yellowbird Airlines (part of Northeast Airlines) I even remember sitting in the window seat, right side of the plane (most likely a 727-100)

My first flight alone was when I was around 9 or 10 years old or so -- IAH-ATL-HSV on Delta to go to Space Camp! :)

I remember being so excited and feeling so grown-up, the old Delta logo on the paper tickets, and looking at them with my mom -- we were sort of amused that the ATL-HSV leg landed in HSV 'before' it left ATL, because of the short time zone hop.

Like with lots of you, my mom walked me on to the plane!

It was 1978 from PHL to ITO(Hilo,Hawaii) to visit my sister who was living on the Big Island. I was 17yrs old.

I remember this... AA B727 PHL-DFW, AA B707 DFW-SAN, overnighted at the Sheraton at SAN Airport. Next morning, Western Airlines B707 SAN-HNL, then Hawaiian Airlines DC9 HNL-ITO.

After a month stay the return was about the same but via SFO and DFW to PHL. I remember they ran out of potable water and were going to stop serving Breakfast right before my row. Thank goodness I heard the Flight Attendant say if anyone needs to wash their hands we have soda water!

Talk about a trip to Paradise at a young age. I will never forgot it all for $358.00 USD roundtrip!

Thanks Dad!

My first flight alone was on NW/CX. PBI-DTW-NRT-HGK-CGK.
I was supposed to go on NW's first direct flight NRT-CGK but it was cancelled due to some regulation.

Anyway, my flight was rerouted through HGK where I spent the night there.

I was 14 at the time and excited of traveling alone. On the way back, it was the same route, thru HGK.

First I found out that my luggage is overweight. I told the lady I'm going to move my things around between the two luggage and will be right back.

Anyway, by the time I finished, I walked back to find the check-in counter empty. I started to panic and found an agent who told me the flight has been closed.

I was getting ready to cry when the agent told me she can put me on a direct NW's HGK-SEA flight instead of going via NRT. She weighed my luggage and they're still overweight! She finally said not to worry about it and told me to go to the gate.

Indeed. You remember it more than getting your licence. For me it was once round the block at Stapleford in a C152. Actually it made me recall coming home in the car from passing my driving test on my own for the first time as well, many years before.

Such a corny start.

Instructor : "Um...I've messed up my schedule. Er....do you mind doing today's training with X [more senior] instead".

So off we went once round the circuit. And stopped on the taxiway.

X : "Well do you think you could do it on your own before long ?"

"I think so"

X : "OK then" (produces solo form signed by both instructors) "off you go". And just gets out.

My first flight alone was JFK-LAX on a TWA 747, when I was 14 (April 1996). Turned out that my school's spring vacation coincided with a business trip of my father's, but he had to leave a few days before me. I was excited both because I was flying as an "adult" for the first time but because I was also going to JFK on my own! I took the school bus home and then took some sort of shared-ride service (Connecticut Limo, I think) from our house in the suburbs right to the airport. I remember the old TWA terminal quite well, and the fact that I had a paper ticket with the "boarding pass" stub on the end. There were dozens of those supposedly deaf solicitors selling trinkets inside the gate area, which annoyed me greatly. My dad deliberately booked me on a 747 as he's always been somewhat fearful of flying and thought that the 747 was the safest plane because of its size.

We flew a very northern route...I saw several of the Great Lakes and could pick up Minnesota FM stations from my Walkman inflight. The flight attendants took good care of me and brought me two meals at dinnertime (I had the same appetite at 14 as I do at 25, but now all there'd be on a JFK-LAX in coach is buy-on-board! :rolleyes: ) The flight was not that turbulent, but upon landing at LAX I threw up all over my brand new green shirt. After everyone else had deplaned, an FA got my bag and found another shirt for me, but I'll never forget my embarassment at that moment. Dad met me at the gate and we went to the hotel in a rented Olds Achieva.

I flew LGA-ATL a few times in high school alone to visit my grandmother, and of course many flights alone in college.

I remember my first solo trip well. I was flying from SEA- GEG to visit my grandparents. I had just turned 5 years old a few days before.

This was in August of 1976 and was in a “banana plane”. I don’t remember now the name of the airline, but they had yellow planes.

I was sitting in the window seat playing with my Charlie’s Angels cards (like baseball cards, only better! :) ). Sitting in the aisle seat was a guy who was telling me all about how he and his friends celebrated the “beer-centennial” (instead of the bicentennial). He thought my cards were cool also, so perhaps he had been celebrating recently also!

I still remember what I was wearing even. I don’t recall being worried or scared at all, and took more flights over the next 10 years or so with my sister or solo on the same route.

I want my visit up front!
 

I flew BNA-TRI returning from my grandparents house in 1977 when I was 7, on Eastern I think. I was feeling ill, diagnosed with pneumonia a few days later. We had a stopover in TYS and I really had to pee. When the pilot came back to offer me a tour of the cockpit I said "no thanks, just show me where the bathroom is." I've been kicking myself for that ever since.

In addition to my "first flight" story, I will never, ever forget my first time on an airplane. It was from HOU-HRL on WN waaaay back around 1988 for the Confederate Air Force AirSho (now the Commemorative Air Force, for P.C.). I'll never, ever forget the total excitment as the plane accelerated down the runway, that feeling of weightlessness and G-Forces combined as we took to the air...and a FREE COKE! As a runny-nosed 11 year old who thought he knew everything (now I'm a 29 year old with kleenex who doesn't know jack s**t) it was the coolest thing in the world.

Sometimes I think back to that, and it really does kind of refresh my love for aviation. That one feeling when the plane leaves the ground is the best feelings in the world, IMHO. It's even better when I'm in FC, which is why I don't fly WN anymore! :D

Ahhhh Yes!!!... I remember it well - my first time flying alone! WOW what a thrill. And it was my first time period on a commercial airliner!!!!..... Oh it was over 20 years ago and was around 1984 - I was selected and appointed by the principal as a Hugh O' Brien Youth scholar and was to attend a leadership seminar in Buffalo, NY. Keep in mind I was from Albany. Well back then USAir would fly between the two cities. I could have easily taken a bus or train for the 6 hour trek but heck I wanted to fly....and with ample sponsorship and money from the paper route - I was able to pay the $78 ticket. It of course was a short flight what 45 mins to an hour tops....I had a window seat near the wing. It was a BAC-111 and what noisy planes they were. I recall counting out the seconds of the takoff roll until we were airborn and then I kept track of the time to see how long before we would pass over my little town outside of Albany. I even still have the ticket receipt. Ahhh yes I remember it well. ^ :) :p :D

I vaguely remember the plane had propellers and was called a Tiger-something.

First time alone was in December '93. MAA - SIN in Y on Singapore Airlines. Been flying them a lot since... :D

i figured i'd find another spacecamper in this thread! and from houston, no less! the sunday afternoon ATL-HSV flights were always fun -- i remember taking a bump off of the ASA flight once, and getting put in F on the MD80 an hour later. F was me (17 yrs old), the other two people who bumped from the ASA flight, 9 op-uped UM's, and one poor medallion who had no clue what a bad idea it is to take the 1:30pm ATL-HSV on sunday. :-)

but, since this thread is about the first time, mine was ticketed on eastern HOU-ATL-HSV, six days after they folded. so the actual route was HOU-MEM-HSV, on NW, all on DC9's. i thought it was so cool that there was a mcdonald's in the memphis airport!

i also remember convincing a DL agent that yes, i really wanted to fly HSV-ATL-DFW-IAH to get on a 767 ATL-DFW.

I was 18, flying to visit a friend near Burlington, VT. Flights were GSO-EWR-BTV. Due to various EWR-caused delays, my scheduled arrival time of 8:00ish was moved back to after 1:00am. The gate was changed three times at EWR without so much as an announcement. On the way back, a canceled flight out of EWR meant me flying BTV-EWR-CLT just to get out of New Jersey and getting someone to pick me up at CLT.