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| Daughter Annie & Jon hanging out in the lounge. |
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| The First Class Lounge -- you got drunk before you flied. |
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| The Upstairs Lounge, accessible via spiral staircase. Even Don Draper never got up here. |
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| First Class cabin where we were. The decor and everything was authentic to a T. |
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| Clipper Class -- the first Business Class section ever. Peasants. |
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| Actual menus, actual snacks. They were still tasty after almost 50 years. |
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| The fashion show. I love the derbies. |
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| Two actual former Pan Am stewardesses who joined us for the flight. |
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| Carved right at your seat. Good luck seeing that today on any carrier. |
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| Dinner is served. They didn't know about cholesterol back then either. |
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| Fashion show part two |
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| Who remembers Braniff? |
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| Love those outfits! |
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| Pan Am merch on display. |
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| What? My daughter is smoking? |
That is so cool! I wish instead of a mock up, that they could bring that service back.
ReplyDeleteThis seems to be a reasonably appropriate place to mention that the nostalgia-heavy PAN AM, a half-season wonder from eight years ago, is being re-released soon on DVD (and released for the first time on Blu-ray). If you are wondering why this show, why now?--well, the fact that the new package emphasizes Margot Robbie in a way the original did not, probably explains why.
ReplyDeleteThis is really awesome :) .....tho I'm not jealous about one thing re: flying in the old days: I don't know if I'd want someone waving around a big carving knife around in something going 500mph that could hit turbulence at any moment. ;)
ReplyDeleteBraniff! Always remember the colorful B. as they flew me and a gazillion other GIs back to the world from Vietnam, Dec. 1, 1967! Their game plan was simple...feed them, then let em smoke then sleep. A 707 was stuffed to its gills and the flight took 18 hrs, with 3 stops for fuel and more food! They were smart enough not to serve alcohol.
ReplyDeleteNow I hope I never have to fly again, it's such a hassle!
Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteI have never travelled by plane. But I love seeing videos/pics of plane travel especially the luxury lounges.
Did this a few years ago and it is indeed a blast.
ReplyDeleteA pair of friends asked if they should go, too. It sounded great to them. But, they don't drink....
And, in this case, because it is SO expensive....I had to qualify my recommendation.
For us, it was easy to consume nearly the ticket price in alcohol over the course of the night. Once you're in, it's as much as you can handle. And you're there for a long stretch of time, many hours. I cut myself off after a couple hours with still hours to go to ensure I was unimpaired for the drive home.
We chose to sit in the Clipper section, though we had drinks in First Class, as we figured it'd be easier eating on a proper table instead of a foldable tray.
So, indulge, have a blast, get a designated driver and dress to impress.
(sadly, they didn't offer cigarettes during our visit.)
-Peter
Ha, is that really just a stunt cigarette in the last photo?
ReplyDelete"Mommy, what was 'smoking'?"
fantastic! that dinner pic is making me hungry.
ReplyDeleteBut you don't go anywhere? You pretend you're on a plane for a few hours and at the end you're right where you started? Makes no sense to me. For those prices, when I get off "Pan Am," I damn well better be in Heathrow.
ReplyDeleteI'm reminded of a commercial I heard Lohman & Barkley do on KFI once, around 40 years ago. They were discussing all the "great" stuff in some airline's special flight package to Dallas, all the service, the food, the movies, everything but backrubs and footrubs. But then Al Lohman said, "Of course, at the end of the flight, you are in Dallas. There is that drawback."
Well, they've "fixed" that now.
I have been on two flights in the last 27 years. First was a Delta to Florida in 1982. Fast, friendly service, little over 2 hours flight time and they served drinks! I watched as they wheeled the cart down the aisle serving mixed drinks till they got to me and asked if I would like a coke. What The Fuck! I said "Yeah, a rum and Coke." She said you have to be over 21 to drink. I basically snarled back that I was well into my 20s. She apologized and said she thought I was 16. Ahhhh, the joys of looking young. The last one was in January of this year and boy, have things changed. Low cost airline, being herded like cattle; only thing missing was the mooing. Insides of Coke cans were bigger than this plane. Flight attendants with accents so thick that they were almost unintelligible so good luck following those safety instructions! Douchebag passengers refusing to turn off their phones even when told the plane wouldn't take off until ALL phones were off. I and several other passengers would have gotten up and beat the shit out of them if we weren't afraid of getting tossed for unbuckling our seat belts. Turbulence that rivaled any roller coaster ride I've been on. [Can't blame the airline for that one, thanks Mother Nature.] People around me starting to look for their barf bags and me thinking "Please don't puke, because if you do, I'll start!". Least there were no screaming, crying babies on my flight. The one asshole that wouldn't shut off his phone took care of that role for the first 20 minutes of the flight crying over the fact that he couldn't watch the Super Bowl. Don't know what the Sarah Huckabee-looking flight attendant said to him after she strolled down the aisle and leaned over to talk to him but he shut up after that. Hopefully it was "Sir, you have three choices. One, we can land at the nearest airport and have you chucked off the plane. Two, we can toss you out the exit right now without a parachute or three, shut the fuck up till we land at the scheduled destination and then you can resume your bitching once you're off the plane."
ReplyDeleteI wrote this about 5 years ago. I'm an engineer in aerospace. I talk about Pan Am and receiving Pan Am junior flight wings...The hubby still has his.
ReplyDeletehttps://aerospace.honeywell.com/en/blogs/2014/august/spacious-seats-and-safety-air-travel-has-come-a-long-way
Making me very nostalgic. Heck, at this point, I'd even be ok with Nixon (by comparison, of course...).
ReplyDeleteI'd just want to know if I could still fit in one of the stewardess outfits...
It might be worth a trip West just to try it out.
I had one first-class flying experience in 1996 where I got upgraded because they overbooked. It's never happened again (I'm not sure if airlines can even do that any more). No carving stations, but I did get to order off a menu and eat steak on real china with real utensils and drinks were unlimited. Yes, I got reasonably sloshed.
ReplyDeleteI travel a lot for work still, and it's just a miserable grind. Cramped, uncomfortable, noisy, irritating. The only "improvement" is that now you can bring your own movies, and my tablet means I don't need to lug three books in my carry-on (I read quickly). But the airlines aren't providing that -- I am.
Very fun.
ReplyDeleteCan the Playboy Plane Club and Trump Plane Steakhouse be far behind
@ Jeff Maxwell
ReplyDeleteWe want something else! We want something else!
Back in those days EVERY flight had at least one highly-obnoxious drunk/wino.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could convince them they needed someone like yourself to fufil that position; only in terms of accuracy, you understand. Oh, and make him a funny drunk. Much better tips.
And why do my thoughts drift towards imagining you forming up ideas about using an airplane trip as the setting of a new screenplay? Would be challenging, to say the least. Confined space; dialogue-heavy; light-to-medium action parameters. It would not be easy.
I DOUBLE-dare 'ya!
;>)