Why flying stopped being glamorous

derg said:
I'm not sure if anyone "remembers" when flying was glamorous, but even in the 1970's it was diving precipitously lower and most people reading this thread wouldn't be able to afford "the weekend trip" like we take today.
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My parents used to send me and my brother up to Oregon on occasion to see our grandmother. I recall the smiley face on the PSA DC-9 that took us up from BUR to SFO and then we'd get on a Chieftain for the second leg up to Crescent City. Our grandma would be waiting and we'd pile into her Karmann Ghia and head north towards towards Brookings. The '70s and '80s were certainly a different time. My parents always insisted that we had at the very least a shirt with some sort of a collar and at least a couple of buttons. She was the original owner of that car, a stick shift, and she kept it until she stopped driving. To this day if I sit in an old Bug the smell still reminds me of driving through forests on the border of California and Oregon.
 
Boris Badenov said:
It became non-glamorous because the Proles could afford it. That's us. So stop whining and buy that $49 Sooper-Saver on Spirit.
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Pretty much!

It was $300 from Visalia to San Francisco back in the early 1980's on a UAL 727.

Swift flight, minimal service, I remember my father and I driving to a… TRAVEL AGENT…. downtown, sitting down and working out the ticket. It took about 20-30 minutes and then we had a printed ticket.

You'd wear your "sunday attire" (even though I had started skipping church at this point so it was largely whatever I wore for funerals), head to the airport and it was a big event.

Now I can have a cocktail, book a transcon flight for $100 bucks, play the whole "Bags? EXTRA! Drink? EXTRA! Need to call to make changes? EXTRA!" we both eat it up and ask ourselves where the glamor has gone.

We didn't want to pay for it. Sadly we've become a nation of people who expect the maximuim level of compensation for whatever we do but damn the system that provides anyone else that maximum level of compensation or even a living wage.

"I want $25/hr to work at Chipotle, but my ticket on a jet flying at 78% the speed of sound better be cheap and reliable"
 
form810 said:
Same reason strippers could "afford" 6 or 8 Florida condos in 2007.
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Instead of teasing us you should tell us about strippers in 2007. Please, instead of trying to be clever just elaborate a bit and maybe someone will hopefully have an inkling regarding what the • you're talking about.
 
Ya' know, the common wisdom is that flying was once the province of the more well-to-do within society. IDK if that's true, given that I did it from time-to-time, even as a middle and high school teen. Grandparents lived in Ft. Wayne, IN and - when of an age which was comfortable to my parents - I flew from BOS to FWA (generally either a stop/continuing single flight or a change of planes in CLE) for some six years every February vacation.

I got a buck weekly as an allowance and 35 cents/day (X 5) for lunch at school in exchange for certain household chores. Generally (with an exception or two), I got an ice cream sandwich for a nickel and saved the 30 additional cents daily along with my dollar allowance. The total during a school year (with carry-over from the year before), was ALWAYS enough to buy a round trip ticket from BOS to FWA on United.

There was hot food (breakfast or lunch) in coach, and the experience - in total - was amazing. I think I made seven of those trips and had to finance them all personally. In later high school years, I DID have additional income from doing yardwork and odd jobs, but it was never a financially onerous thing (and, yes, it was coach and I got a "student fare"). Kid that I was, I still wore a sport coat and tie, and have the most amazing memories.

It was generally my Dad who dropped me at Logan and made sure baggage was checked properly to destination. It was up to me to make the telephone reservations and to either pickup the paper ticket at BOS. No credit cards were involved, no special menus or issues.

Flying used to be very, very different. I was interested enough in aviation to know I flew on a DC-6 a couple times, with the transition to a 737 coming just a tad later. When it was a direct flight from BOS to FWA, with a stop in CLE but continuing on the same aircraft, continuing passengers didn't have to deplane during refueling (although they could). In later years, I had to replace at CLE and catch a connecting flight on to FWA. Spent many fun-filled hours hanging out at Hopkins International. It was great fun with a teen in love with aviation.
 
Bob Ridpath said:
I got a buck weekly as an allowance and 35 cents/day (X 5) for lunch at school in exchange for certain household chores. Generally (with an exception or two), I got an ice cream sandwich for a nickel and saved the 30 additional cents daily along with my dollar allowance. The total during a school year (with carry-over from the year before), was ALWAYS enough to buy a round trip ticket from BOS to FWA on United.
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There was nothing cheap about your childhood flights. $106, your annual savings, was a lot of money in 1964.

$106 in 1964 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $1,019.00 today, an increase of $913.00 over 59 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.91% per year between 1964 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 861.32%.

Today, I can fly BOS-FWA-BOS for under $300.
 
derg said:
It was $300 from Visalia to San Francisco back in the early 1980's on a UAL 727.
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When I was at Fresno we worked Visalia, had a remote transciever site on the airport. Up until the PATCO strike Inland Empire Airlines served Visalia with SW4’s about 4 times a day. That was about it. IIRC they went to LAX, SNA, and ONT. IE also flew out of Fresno.

Fresno was served by a United 727, flight 412, once a day. It went to Denver and back.

As far as 727’s to SFO, they came out of FAT, PSA a couple times a day. AirCal also did it with 737’s. I used both often but always flew jump seat so I dont know about cost. Another 121 operation flying to SFO was Golden Gate but they were all turbo props.

Other jets out of FAT, Hughes Air West and Republic. Both flew the DC-9.

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It certainly seems more accessible now. Back in the day (1980's let's say) when I was a kid.....I think I took 1 flight to Florida at some point....It was a big deal.

Nowadays my kid's peers are regularly going to FL, to the Caribbean....Heck I regularly hear about kids going to Europe. I don't think that was a thing back then.
 
It stopped being glamorous because it stopped needing to be. How do you get people to chose your regulated airline over another regulated airline? Well you have a mini skirt wearing FA cook your steak for you at your seat. Prices started coming down and more and more people started flying as all those “golden age” things started disappearing, and we realized we didn’t really want to pay for that •.

flying isn’t a novelty, or an experience, or an adventure. It’s a means to the novelty, experience, or adventure b
 
There was a 20/20 episode some years back that followed a day-in-the-life of an AA transcon flight from BOS to LAX I believe. When all was said and done, the flight managed to profit less than $300. I think consumer entitlement has ruined it. For some wacky reason, general consumers are hardwired to believe a $400 round trip ticket is too expensive. Ugh.
 
SeanD said:
There was a 20/20 episode some years back that followed a day-in-the-life of an AA transcon flight from BOS to LAX I believe. When all was said and done, the flight managed to profit less than $300. I think consumer entitlement has ruined it. For some wacky reason, general consumers are hardwired to believe a $400 round trip ticket is too expensive. Ugh.
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$400 to fly across the country and back is too expensive? Those are the same people that get the newest iPhone for $1200 and have never ending car payments.

Example, my cousin was complaining that the lease payment on a Chrysler town and country was $700 a month. Foregoing the obvious question of why tf was she even considering a Chrysler town and • country, I wondered why she was leasing a car in the first place. She is the same person that says she can't afford to fly somewhere for a vacation with her family of five. Well, no, not when you are LEASING A TOWN AND • COUNTRY FOR $700 A MONTH!
 
Is it really that bad?

The airlines all seem to be reporting strong profits. Pilot hiring is at an all time high. Wages are at an all time high. The "proles" are able to fly to wherever they want. The fact that flying has turned into the Greyhound of the skies not withstanding, what's there really to complain about? I mean, sure, it's not 1975 anymore, but a lot of us here either weren't alive then or were too young to remember it.

I'll take these "problems" over the real problems we had 15-20 years ago.
 
guywhoflies said:
$400 to fly across the country and back is too expensive? Those are the same people that get the newest iPhone for $1200 and have never ending car payments.

Example, my cousin was complaining that the lease payment on a Chrysler town and country was $700 a month. Foregoing the obvious question of why tf was she even considering a Chrysler town and • country, I wondered why she was leasing a car in the first place. She is the same person that says she can't afford to fly somewhere for a vacation with her family of five. Well, no, not when you are LEASING A TOWN AND • COUNTRY FOR $700 A MONTH!
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Again though, that’s because flying is a transient, temporary commodity. Nobody is flying for sake of flying… they are flying to get to Disney. Disney is the objective. Not the 3 hours in the back of a 737.

an iPhone or a car IS the commodity.
 
poser765 said:
Again though, that’s because flying is a transient, temporary commodity. Nobody is flying for sake of flying… they are flying to get to Disney. Disney is the objective. Not the 3 hours in the back of a 737.

an iPhone or a car IS the commodity.
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I agree on the point of flying being a means to get to disney.

My point was that people are idiots for buying new cell phones every year and wasting money with never ending car payments via leases, trading a car in as soon as it is paid off, etc. They are never going to get ahead of the financial curve if they make those poor decisions. My cousin is stuck in this mentality.
 
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