You could walk your family members/friends right to the gate without going through any screening. As a bonus, everyone wore shoes and not their worst clothes too.
My first flight I was by myself before I was even a teenager yet, and the airline had a specific flight attendant watch after me until my grandparents picked me up on the other side. She was awesome and I kept the flight wings the captain gave me for decades. It was not unusually good customer service.
In fact, before MBAs McKinsey’d the world, interactions at most businesses were actually pleasant… Nearly every restaurant or store actually cared about customer satisfaction in the before times. I can’t tell you how nice that was having a social contract. It was a genuinely nice thing (*racial and gender provisions apply, offer not valid in all areas) Instead of expanding the umbrella to everyone, we drained the public pools and now it’s normal…
Alternately: I remember when everyone on a flight could smoke. The cabin filled with a blueish unbreathable haze. Nobody had personal electronics, and in-flight entertainment was rare, so every child on the plane was continuously crying, whining, or yelling.
They had movies. And like 13 “radio stations” that repeated like every hour, you had to listen to with those weird non-electric head phones they would hand out.
Ohhhh yeahhh… those headphones that were just tubes the sound traveled down, into your ears. I was too little to understand how they worked then. Thanks for reminding me!
I got so bored once, I put my ear next to the arm rest where the plug was, and realized I could hear the audio. So those headphones were basically like a stethoscope.
i remember the no smoking sign would go off, but i don’t remember people smoking on flights. but that might be because i had family members who were smokers and people still smoked in restaurants, so maybe i tuned it out.
We smoked everywhere. Grocery stores, hospital rooms, planes, taxis, buses, restaurants – no place was off limits, and there were barely any designated smoking sections. Everyone smoked, even if they didn’t, because it was literally everywhere.
Go back far enough and people who didn’t smoke often kept cigarettes and ashtrays for guests because it was a polite thing to do for company.
It’s one of the biggest (and lesser acknowledged) cultural shifts we’ve seen over the last several decades.
Flying being a really fun and nice experience.
You could walk your family members/friends right to the gate without going through any screening. As a bonus, everyone wore shoes and not their worst clothes too.
My first flight I was by myself before I was even a teenager yet, and the airline had a specific flight attendant watch after me until my grandparents picked me up on the other side. She was awesome and I kept the flight wings the captain gave me for decades. It was not unusually good customer service.
In fact, before MBAs McKinsey’d the world, interactions at most businesses were actually pleasant… Nearly every restaurant or store actually cared about customer satisfaction in the before times. I can’t tell you how nice that was having a social contract. It was a genuinely nice thing (*racial and gender provisions apply, offer not valid in all areas) Instead of expanding the umbrella to everyone, we drained the public pools and now it’s normal…
Alternately: I remember when everyone on a flight could smoke. The cabin filled with a blueish unbreathable haze. Nobody had personal electronics, and in-flight entertainment was rare, so every child on the plane was continuously crying, whining, or yelling.
No I’m flight entertainment?
They had movies. And like 13 “radio stations” that repeated like every hour, you had to listen to with those weird non-electric head phones they would hand out.
And they had these weird things that were like a bunch of pages stuck together … Oh yeah, books!
Ohhhh yeahhh… those headphones that were just tubes the sound traveled down, into your ears. I was too little to understand how they worked then. Thanks for reminding me!
I got so bored once, I put my ear next to the arm rest where the plug was, and realized I could hear the audio. So those headphones were basically like a stethoscope.
Nice, this is the first time I’m hearing about this. That sure sounds like a fun bit of trivia
i remember the no smoking sign would go off, but i don’t remember people smoking on flights. but that might be because i had family members who were smokers and people still smoked in restaurants, so maybe i tuned it out.
We smoked everywhere. Grocery stores, hospital rooms, planes, taxis, buses, restaurants – no place was off limits, and there were barely any designated smoking sections. Everyone smoked, even if they didn’t, because it was literally everywhere.
Go back far enough and people who didn’t smoke often kept cigarettes and ashtrays for guests because it was a polite thing to do for company.
It’s one of the biggest (and lesser acknowledged) cultural shifts we’ve seen over the last several decades.
But… we maximized profits for rich shareholders at the expense of everyone else. Isn’t that also great?