Here's a great TWA ad from the regulation period of the airline industry staring Peter Sellers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RnhwK8Id3Y&NR=1

Oh, wow. funny how things change...sheesh. wonder what a first class ticket would have actually cost? And people actually had to PAY for them, no upgrades, etc. If there were no FFP's now,. I wonder if one would. actually pay for the FC experience?

Here's another.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmE1z...eature=related

If we would compare regulated pricing in 2008 dollars to current pricing we would understand that flying at that time was not for the masses. It was for business travelers and the well to do.

I flew before there were jets and at the start of the jet era. Working for the government in 1964 I can remember having to justify using a jet even when the per diem allowance savings exceeded the jet surcharge.

I flew cross county in first class in an early 747. Sure glad someone else was paying for it. But it was nice.

Today planes are just vehicles of mass transit. We are cargo even in first class. It is not the same.

And yet for most of us it is even better. The ability to visit far away places for reasonable prices to me is worth the indignities and discomfort of flying today.

I have a daughter in Chicago and can remember airfares of as much as $600 (maybe more) RT in coach. Today, years later for under $200 (last ticket was $108) I can go visit. We can weekend on either coast as well as in Florida for under $400 and sometimes under $200.

Competition means that airlines will fal. If consolidation creates excessive prices, then maybe price control will again be needed. I hope not.

I'll stick by my numbers. Between 1978 and 2007, US population increased at around 1% a year, cumulatively about a 50% growth (~303M now, ~222M in 1978). These numbers come from the US Census website.
While I can't find specific airline numbers, there is no way anyone will convince me that airline travel over the last 30 years hasn't easily increased by more than 50%. Results from trying to search for that seem to indicate about a 4% average increase in passenger travel, meaning there are a lot more people flying relative to total population.

Jeff

You're posting the above in response to a post mentioning global population!
US population as part of global population has been steadily declining as other countries (India comes to mind) have had massive population surges.
The fact that you can't see the poor people (i.e. they don't live near you) doesn't mean they've ceased to exist.

What is a post about global population doing in a thread about U.S. deregulation?

Maybe putting things into a wider perspective! @:-)

The nice thing about airline tickets being interchangeable across airlines and having cash value was the flexibility.

When my family went to Europe in 1967, we flew JFK>LHR on Pan Am, LHR>Oslo on BEA, Oslo to Trondheim and back on Braathens, Oslo to CPH on SAS, CPH to Hanover on SAS, Koln to Paris on LH, Paris to Amsterdam on AF, and Amsterdam to JFK on KLM. We did this for the price of a ticket to Trondheim (our most expensive point) on the "extra cities" plan.

During this trip, our LHR>Oslo flight was delayed for two hours. The gate agents were extremely apologetic and took us into a lounge for tea and sandwiches.

The whole TATL+extra cities ticket was about $800 RT, or like $4,000 today. However, coach then was not like coach now. Seats were five across, there was plenty of leg room, the FAs were attentive, and the food was plentiful.

In 1973, I was supposed to fly from Ithaca, New York to MSP via LGA for Christmas, but all the airports on the East Coast were fogged in. In order to make it home, I went to the Ithaca airport, cashed in my ticket (they literally gave me a couple hundred dollars in cash), and used the money to pay for a marathon Greyhound trip halfway across the country.

Also during the 1970s, I scheduled to fly on NW from LGA to MSP for a family event, and I was sitting in the departure lounge when the gate attendant announced that the flight was canceled due to mechanical problems. However, the first 12 people who had checked in would be accommodated on a UA flight via ORD that was leaving in 30 minutes. As one of the lucky 12, I raced over to the UA gate.

If your flight got canceled for any reason and the airline couldn't ensure that you reached your destination within a certain time, you received meal vouchers at a minimum and hotel vouchers if you couldn't leave till the next day.

The food on domestic airlines was TV dinner quality, but the food on European and Asian airlines was even better than it is now.

I believe that international ticket prices were set through bilateral agreements between the countries at either end of the flight. However, consolidators existed at the time, and Americans living in Japan were particularly fond of Korean Airlines' $300 flight to LAX every Tuesday. The normal 1-way fare was about $800.

Deregulation brought some bargains at first. When Laker Airways appeared on the scene, as the first LCC across the Atlantic, all the TATL legacy carriers matched its fares on a limited basis. I remember graduate school friends heading to New York City to stand in line overnight at the Air France or BA ticket office, hoping to grab one of the day's few $99 tickets. (My research interests were in Asia, so I never did this myself.)

With their (then) superior service, the legacies drove Laker out of business, but then they themselves started taking away one luxury after another.

These stories are so interesting to me. People who were around then should post more!

This was a great thread idea. Historical perspectives are always interesting to review.

If one wants to get a feel for the hot female stewardesses, go ride with Hooters or Singapore Airlines. Heck, I remember flying on a Greek airline (Onassis's old empire) in 1997 and you could see through the stewardesses blouse and bra!