A chance to reminisce - who remembers the "old days" of Travel?

[Forg]

I'm so old that I remember when any Australian who misspelt aeroplane had to write a thousand lines and fly on American Airlines

Did that reinforce the 'airplane' speeling, and the cycle repeated itself?

 

[Walter_Plinge]

Here's my earliest memory - 1958, Adelaide to Pt Lincoln. Seating 2 + 1. After takeoff the hostess brought round a tray of barley sugars for you to suck and make your ears pop. A cup of tea served in a china cup with a couple of Scotch Fingers. For take off and landing (at Lincoln) a chap stood at the side of the runway with a giant fire extinguisher bottle about as tall as he was. IIRC I got a plastic "Wings" badge, and colour pencils and a colouring-in book were provided.

My sister and I were flying unaccompanied so the hostess took care of us - she is lifting my sister down the steps. I was in a hurry to meet my new baby brother.

Waiting to board in Adelaide I remember a 707 taxiing with the jets facing the terminal. The racket was frightening at that age.

 

[Andy_M]

I used to travel to Melbourne from Sydney return quite regularly as a kid solo in the late 60`s and 70`s. I wasn't even a teenager then. I used to be in the TAA club for kids, had my own wings and little booklet. The cabin crew took great care of me and always took me to the coughpit. The feeling I had back then flying was so special. These days I find it quite tedious even as a P1.

 

[Cossie]

I miss 'standby' fares, great if you had the time.

 

[Forg]

I miss 'standby' fares, great if you had the time.

Does that not stil exist? I'm moderately sure (Mum could have got it wrong of course) that my worked-for-Qantas-from-apprenticeship-to-retirement uncle was going Standby on the weekend & hence expecting to be waiting around a lot.

 

[Cossie]

Does that not stil exist? I'm moderately sure (Mum could have got it wrong of course) that my worked-for-Qantas-from-apprenticeship-to-retirement uncle was going Standby on the weekend & hence expecting to be waiting around a lot.

Honestly don't know, maybe it still exists for airline employees? Whilst I have lot's of spare time now, I like things to be nice and orderly.
Also 'bucket' shops in the UK were good if you had lot's of time, companies would sell unsold seats cheaply, guess it's now evolved into low cost airlines.

 

[Beano]

Ohh the memories! I was a late and slow starter. A few flights in the early 80s and 90s when the excitement of flying was sufficient and the lounge was the airport bar. I lived in the UK so most were short domestic or Europe. Free drinks off course but that was before budget airlines, and smoking. Cabin segregation was usually a cross the width, smoking at the back. If you got a seat in the first row in front you might as well have been in smoking. One airline segregated left and right on a 3-3 layout, which was useless. I also remember flying into NZ when on lsnding the FAs would walk up the aisles spraying some chemical. Those were the days!

 

[kgreenuq]

Not everything was wonderful back then. Back in 1979 we were flying London to Geneva on an el cheapo airline that no longer exists. FAs looked and acted like they had starred in Prisoner. All passengers were tossed a month-old bun as the FAs strode down the aisle before take-off and berated passengers who weren't adroit enough to catch them. During the flight a passenger asked for a second cup of water -- big mistake! But the highlight for me was the theatre that happened when we landed. Chief FA warned everyone they had to wait until folks in the seat in front of them had moved out. A little old lady about two-thirds of the way down either didn't hear or didn't care (probably didn't speak English) and started to totter towards the front of the plane. "Right!" said the FA. "You were warned -- just for that you're going to be last off the plane!" With that she manhandled the passenger to the rear of the plane, put her in a seat and then sat on her. Stunned little old lady practically crawled off the plane -- and I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Ah, the good old days!

 

[Forg]

I also remember flying into NZ when on lsnding the FAs would walk up the aisles spraying some chemical.

Ah yeah, I remember that! Same flying into Oz, they'd walk up both aisles with a pressure-pack of "fly-spray" and blast it into the air above the seats.

As per Redgum's I've Been to Bali Too:
Touch down, touch down Tullamarine
They sprayed me on the plane so I’d be real clean

 

[wicks21]

Hi all, I start this just through a sheer personal feeling, but I thought it may evoke tender memories in those on the forum that have been in the game for a few years.....

In my life time air travel has truly changed. I am not really old, yet certainly not young, and the changes in my experience have been monumental.

When I was growing up, air travel was a thing of the rich, not the masses. Almost noone flew domestically - we all traveled on buses. And the concept of middle-income people having yearly trips overseas (like Bali) was simply inconceivable. but that is the new reality.

I learnt to travel when in my teenage years I had to navigate between Sth America and Australia solo - and there was no internet, mobile phones, perpetual and secure comms. You literally had to write physical letters that would take months to bridge the pacific abyss.

When you bought a ticket you got a wad of paper travel vouchers - again, no internet or e ticket wonders. You respected the novelty of being able to cross borders.

In hindsight it was much harder to do, but at the same time it reflected the seriousness of what you were doing - travelling across the globe and crossing borders. Things have been made so simple now that I suspect that few even think about these things - they take the globe to be their personal playground within which they have some sort of "right" to play in. And I see this reflected in expectations in all modern travel. But I also see the modern views as flawed and ridiculous. The world is not a playground for those afluente enough to cruise it - it has problems.

Maybe some can remember what it was like just a decade or two ago?

I am going way back to the early 70s when as a kid, we migrated from Sri Lanka to NZ.. We seem to have flown multiple airlines, 5 from memory. Several stopovers as all the flights were rather short given we were mainly in DC8's I think. Longest flight was Jakarta to Perth. What I recall was the quality of service in economy, amazing meal trays and many snacks. The planes were also half empty allowing us plenty of room to muck around in! Passengers were formally dressed, mainly suits.. Service was wonderful. Most of the airlines do not exist anymore - Air Ceylon, MSA(Malaysia Singapore Airlines) and TAA from Perth to Sydney. I think our last leg from Sydney to Wellington was in Air NZ Electra Turboprop! We spent a week getting across, what a memorable time..

 

[juddles]

I am going way back to the early 70s when as a kid,.......... What I recall was the quality of service in economy, amazing meal trays and many snacks. ......

I think there are the same amount of snacks and "cool things" like little salt and pepper sachets, etc on modern meal trays, but I think that as a kid in the 70's (especially coming from the "bush" in my case) Life in general was so much more austere and simple, so those trays provoked pure joy and bliss

 

[Forg]

I think that as a kid in the 70's (especially coming from the "bush" in my case) Life in general was so much more austere and simple, so those trays provoked pure joy and bliss

My better-half has a story relating to emigrating to Oz from Germany when she was 9.
Chocolate was something for a Big Treat, they didn't get it often. But when they did, it was smooth creamy German or Swiss chocolate.
So anyway there's this huge kerfuffle, her entire life is uprooted & thrown across the world. Probably a 24hr flight in total FRA to SYD (probably all 747 in the early 80's), pretty traumatic, and they were flying Qantas.
She remembers the really pleasant flight attendant (who of course didn't speak German) giving her a bar of Cadbury's chocolate as they approached Sydney ... one bite into that "modified to survive in the antipodes" non-chocolate and she burst into tears, she remembers thinking that life in Australia would all be like that one bar of horrible fake-chocolate, and she can't eat Cadbury's to this day.

 

[sydunipete]

I remember the red carbon paper on the tickets very well, and having to ring a few days before to confirm your reservation.

When I first started work business travel was a rare thing usually reserved for senior executives but my IT skills allowed me to score the occasional trip.A major bank’s domestic travel policy was business class unless the flight was over 2 hours then it was first class. I still remember first class in the nose of an ANSETT 727 Sydney to Alice to Darwin.

 

[ramboflyer]

I used to travel to Melbourne from Sydney return quite regularly as a kid solo in the late 60`s and 70`s. I wasn't even a teenager then. I used to be in the TAA club for kids, had my own wings and little booklet. The cabin crew took great care of me and always took me to the coughpit. The feeling I had back then flying was so special. These days I find it quite tedious even as a P1.

I was born in Hobart and my mother came from Sydney so we had lots of trips in the 50's and 60's on TAA to see the grandparents. I remember the badges the hosties would give us and it seemed every time they would take us into the coughpit to chat to the pilot. I still to this day say hello to the pilots on domestic flights when disembarking if the door is open.

I remember flying to Sydney in the early 90's for my grandmothers funeral on East West. Something went wrong on the approach to the runway (twice) and we had some wonderful close up views of Sydney Harbour and the bridge as the pilot went around again.

 

[VPS]

Does that not stil exist? I'm moderately sure (Mum could have got it wrong of course) that my worked-for-Qantas-from-apprenticeship-to-retirement uncle was going Standby on the weekend & hence expecting to be waiting around a lot.

Could be a staff travel and they are often standby because if someone more important or is willing to pay comes along then you have to wait

 

[p--and--t]

Does that not stil exist? I'm moderately sure (Mum could have got it wrong of course) that my worked-for-Qantas-from-apprenticeship-to-retirement uncle was going Standby on the weekend & hence expecting to be waiting around a lot.

In AU. Only employees as I understand it

 

[AisleSeat]

Just spotted this thread. Funnily enough yesterday I was remembering how in the 80s in-flight movies would be played on a projector and display on the bulkhead.

 

[p--and--t]

I remember (pre-terrorsm threats etc) being invited to sit in a jump seat for landing 3 times. A great experience.

Once was an Ansett Skystar(?) into PER. Another an F27 landing in TCA on an inaugural milk run from ASP (was actually standing as there wasn't a seat to sit in from memory). Another was a landing into ROC on a Dash8 I think, not sure.

 

[cosi]

In the late 70's travelling international from Mascot with my dad and the QF Flight Service Director (FSD) would visit the lounge to introduce himself to all the passengers.

Orange jacket and brown pants was the FSD uniform and tie.

 

[rginoz]

I don't have any personal memory of this, but here are some anecdotes, as related to me by my parents, about travel in the very early 1950s.

My parents were living in Darwin at the time, but some time before my birth, my mother returned to her home town, Brisbane, for the big event. In those days, things were pretty primitive hospital-wise in Darwin. In fact, most aspects of life in Darwin then were very basic. Subsequently, my first air journey was from Brisbane to Darwin, was as a babe in arms, with my mother, in a DC3. The trip took all day, with I think about 5 or 6 stops to refuel and collect passengers along the way. At Longreach, cars were used to bring the passengers into town for lunch at a hotel. Air travel was such a rare thing then - my grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins would all travel out to Eagle Farm Aerodrome at the crack of dawn to see us and the plane depart.

Some time soon after that, my parents bought a new car, a Hillman, to be collected in Brisbane and then to be driven to Darwin. Not via the direct route across central Queensland where the roads just didn't exist, but driven via Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, then on the passenger/freight train to Alice Springs, and then driven up the Highway to Darwin. No air conditioning, no mobile phone reception, and the baby seat for me was a metal and canvas contraption that hung over the back of the front bench seat, between the driver and passenger. We got there!

Before she passed away, I took my mother a couple of times to the USA for holidays, with more 12 and 14 hour flights, but those trips were a lot safer and more comfortable than our early journeys together.