Remember when flying the skies was actually
friendly? By Arthur Vidro
O
nce upon a time flying in an airplane was glamorous. People put on their Sunday best to fly. They paid big bucks for the experience, but they were treated like royalty. They could check as many bags as they wanted. No hidden fees lurked. No strip searches. Food and drink were provided. Crying babies and frightened toddlers were a rarity because bringing young ones on a flight was practically unheard of. Then everything changed. Widebody jets that became prevalent circa 1970 needed to be filled to fly at maximum profit. Then the industry deregulated. Finally, the events of September 11, 2001, triggered additional changes that led to the implementation of extra fees right and left. Once the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 kicked in (one of the things deregulated was the setting of prices) flying became a race to the bottom. The airlines that garnered the largest sales increases were those that provided the
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cheapest prices, which they accomplished by doing away with existing services and eliminating “luxuries” such as leg room, elbow room, food and drink. Those competitors who were slower to do away with services and amenities saw the writing on the wall and followed suit. Or folded. It became 100 percent about price and 0 percent about quality—a formula that is also hurting other industries. I flew for the first time when my brother and I were teenagers. This was before the frenzied days of screen addictions, when people on board were not seeking flickering images but calmly thought and spoke like leisurely human beings. My brother requested from a stewardess a deck of cards to play gin rummy. Cards were a common request then. They were normal playing cards on one side, the airline’s logo on the other. Passengers were encouraged to keep the cards. Those logo-emblazoned cards were publicity for the company.
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Next time you fly, ask a stewardess—now they’re called flight attendants—for a deck of cards. They’ll chuckle at your naivety. Back in the 1970s, not long before I first flew, I saw on “The Carol Burnett Show” a sketch making fun of the practice of flying some pas-
sengers in first class while others flew in the then-new “economy” class. A wide-eyed economy passenger walked down the pleasant aisle. But as the economy section began, she stumbled because that’s when the carpet stopped. A stewardess standing in first
PASSENGERS IN FIRST CLASS GOT A PROFESSIONALLY PREPARED HOT MEAL. PASSENGERS IN ECONOMY HAD BAGS OF PEANUTS THROWN AT THEM.
