I have a theory. There’s a set amount of Good Stuff in the universe, and a set amount of Crap, and the ratios aren’t great. Maybe it’s 20:80 good-to-crap ratio, maybe 30:70. Whatever it is, there does seem to be more Crap than Good Stuff. Even if there’s set quantities of these elements, how they get distributed is not fixed, not by a long shot. This means that the particular things that are Crap or Good Stuff can vary wildly over time, and you will likely live through many cycles of things in your life fluctuating between Crap and Good Stuff.
For example, at this moment in history, we live in a world where there are excellent quality television programming options, our air is relatively clean, and our airliners are boring and soulless flying tubes of people. Compare that to the 1970s, where most television was inane drivel (even if nostalgia makes it fun now, but go ahead, try sitting through an episode of Hello, Larry), air quality was garbage, but airliners had dazzling, colorful, and exciting interiors.
See? I don’t exactly know how all the math shakes out, but trust me, it’s the same ratios of Good Stuff to Crap. But I’m here to brighten your day, not defecate upon it, so let’s take a quick look at one of the things in the 1970s set of Good Stuff: airline interiors, specifically, the interiors of the upper-deck lounges on Boeing 747s.
We all are familiar with the distinctive humpbacked appearance of the 747. It’s perhaps one of the most recognizable commercial aircraft ever – almost anyone can identify a picture of a Boeing 747, unlike other common aircraft like an Airbus A330 or something, which, if you show a picture to a random person, they’ll just tell you that’s an “airplane” before demanding that you let go of their arm.
The 747 is notable for that second-deck hump. In most later (around the late 1980s/early 1990s to the end of production in 2022) configurations of the 747, that upper deck was used to cram in more lucrative first-class passengers, as you can see here:
But that wasn’t always the case! In the first full decade of 747 production and use, the 1970s, that upper deck was something far more incredible:
See what’s going on up there? Let’s get a better look! COMPUTER! Zoom and enhance!
Look at that! The upper deck wasn’t for shoving in more expensive seats; it was for letting the people in those seats roam and relax and, yes, lounge, the verb, because this was a lounge, the noun. And, it’s one of the most ’70s nouns I can think of. Lounge. It’s simultaneously classy and sleazy all at the same time, just like the ’70s. It’s uninhibited and decadent, luxurious and languid, all rich earthtone upholstery and draped people, made both physically and mentally loose and pliable thanks to the judicious application of quaaludes and booze.
There’s some good scenes of this majestic upper lounge in this promotional film from Qantas Airlines:
Here’s a better look at their lounge, which was themed around the famous British Royal Navy officer Captian Cook, who visited Hawaii and Australia in the 1700s:
Hot mangoes, that’s some raw, industrial-grade swank going on there.
Look at all those smooth operators, operating smoothly. And note the nautical themed decorations, the lanterns, the ship’s wheel, the portrait of the Captain himself. Fantastic.
Boeing themselves encouraged the use of the upper deck for lounge spaces, and even designed some of their own, like the incredible “Tiger Lounge”:
This one was never actually installed on any airline’s 747, but I’m sure it provided some inspiration to the airline executives as they hoovered up fat rails of cocaine off the polished surface of a beautiful mahogany desk. I mean, look at it! The animal prints! The orange carpet, the almost conversation pit, that leather center bar thing, everything, everything, everything! Oh, and as some commenters have pointed out, this concept appears to be under the upper deck, in the nose section. Which may be why no one wanted it, as that’s a lot of seating real estate to give up.
Even if the Tiger Lounge didn’t make it to production, don’t fret, because this one did, on Air India 747s:
Wow. That’s astounding.
It wasn’t just lounges that occupied these upper decks; there were also more full-fledged restaurants:
Why does Gingham Tie look so shocked by that coffee? What does he know? Is that the glass he dropped the bennies in?
…and of course, there were straightforward bars:
That’s on a Continental 747. I wonder if anyone has the heart to tell Baldy O’Hawaiianshirt on the right there how far out of his league he is.
Continental even took the concept a bit further (and into the 1980s) as they fitted not just some generic bar, but an actual pub on all their widebody jets:
I think my favorite of all of these, though, is what American Airlines did. They stuck an organ up there:
Yep, that was a real, working organ, for that piano bar sort of feeling. As far as I understand it, anyone could sit down and play; perhaps your flight was lucky enough to have actually talented people and/or flight attendants? Did tipsy travelers actually gather around these and belt out a spirited chorus of Rocket Man or something like that? I sure as hell hope so.
There are very few passenger 747s left (there are some, as commenters have noted), and even if there still were, they haven’t had lounges like these in quite a while. The world that allowed this gleeful madness to exist currently no longer exists. The cycles of Crap and Good Stuff have shifted, and wild 747 lounges were a casualty.
Well, they’re not completely gone; if you have the money for a business class ticket on Emirates Airlines and they stick you on an A380, then you can enjoy their modern take on the Lounge:
[Mercedes Note: A big reason the aircraft interior design of the 1970s went away is that the economics of running an airline have dramatically changed. The government used to control airline market entry, routes, and fare structures. Since airlines weren’t competing on pricing, they instead competed on the experience. Airlines marketed themselves on speed, luxury, and safety. Following the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, airlines had the freedom to set their own prices, and new airlines had far less red tape in entering the market. Soon enough, ticket prices plummeted as airlines tried to grab passengers with attractive fares.
If you account for inflation, even base tickets in the 1970s were thousands of dollars. People treated flying like going to a formal dinner, in part because it was so expensive and not an experience that just anyone could do. In the post-regulation world, you can fly thousands of miles for under $100. But to make that work, airlines have to cram as many people as possible on the planes, have those planes be as efficient as possible, and keep those planes in the sky for as many hours in a day as possible. So, while flying might not be magical anymore, it is accessible to far more people. – MS]
Maybe they’ll come back on a wider scale, but we’ll have to give up something good. I bet we could allocate a bit of how many craft beers there are now to get these back, right? I mean, we get it, we can go back from having a heptillion beer choices to just, I don’t know, hundreds? I’m willing to make that sacrifice, at least for a bit.
I’d argue we’re returning to an era of high luxury in the skies, but the implementation is far more individualistic – with a focus on privacy and your “own” lounge so to speak.
The most cutting edge first/business class products coming out tend to offer “pod” like qualities where the whole point is to isolate oneself from other passengers. That’s decidedly different to this more communal approach.
I’m not sure what it says about modern society vs. what we were like back then. But in today’s world, I would much rather fly semi-privately in an enclosed “suite” than mingle with other passengers.
Were we actually more social and open to communal spaces like this?
I don’t remember the 70’s much (I was too young), but in the 80’s and 90’s I would not see the kind of grown-up, antisocial BS behavior that I see all to often when I get in a plane nowadays.
(Admittedly, though, I still see little acts of kindness, too, so all is not lost.)
Were we actually more social and open to communal spaces like this?
This is has become economy class. You’re packed in so tight so you have no choice but to be *social* when the person in the seat ahead reclines their seatback all the way from takeoff to landing, the kid behind keeps kicking your seat and the smelly person next to you keeps sharing their conspiracy theories.
Communal space? That’s the line for the bathroom.
Came here to write essentially this.
For the poors, this is slightly coming back. The new A350ULR had to reduce the passenger count to increase range. Instead of going all business/premium economy like Singapore did to make JFK to SIN work, they have included “wellness” spaces where people in Econ are welcome to hang out.
Not as swanky as a lounge, but simply having some open space in a new airplane is kind of a big deal.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
That’s why.
Adjusted for inflation, plane tickets cost literally 1/3rd of what they did in the 1970’s
https://simpleflying.com/us-airfares-1970s-cost-history/
Yep – can’t have it both ways, there’s limited space so something has to give.
Consumers have chosen cheap at every turn. Can’t argue with that, but we put ourselves in this situation.
Completely agree – fill most of the plane with rockbottom pressure price and calculate how much you can charge for massive luxury, Especiallt international first class. I have not experienced that but have seen it.
As noted in the link, before deregulation, airlines didn’t really compete on price. Amenities were how they distinguished themselves. Cheap was not really an option until deregulation in 1978.
Exactly. I regularly recommend listening to Freakonomics, but they did a good series on airlines, including why deregulation happened.
As you said, airlines competed on amenities, but they also competed on convenience by offering more and more flights. At the fixed rates set by the government, that meant that airlines were flying with fewer and fewer passengers per plane, right in the middle of the oil and economic crises of the 70’s.
Or just read one of my historical pieces on older airliners, because I usually explain why today’s planes are the way they are.
See what happens when I leave? Jason’s writing about planes!
Not only $$$, but market competition. Anyone with the funds to afford this kind of luxury routinely is now flying private flights, whether rented or owned.
Turns out the rich will take smaller planes to avoid rubbing elbows with commoners.
Damn, those pneumatic headsets were some weird magic to me back then.
I can smell the hair oil, bourbon, burned coffee and cigarettes from here.
To fly up there one had to be splashing quite a bit of cash. Baldo up there is probably F-U rich to not care about the fashion faux pas of jeans and a Hawaiian shirt. Probably could buy half the airline without blinking.
I fully support this public service announcement.
The good/bad ratio really skewed when worldwide greed kicked in. And of course, it skewed the wrong way.
These photos made me think of an early computer game called Leisure Suit Larry and the Lounge Lizards. And I think the folks in these photos are in that game…
Text-based computer games FTW!
Haven’t heard or thought about that game in at least 15 years. Absolutely unhinged game. You can play it though your browser via archive.org.
https://archive.org/details/msdos_Leisure_Suit_Larry_1_-_Land_of_the_Lounge_Lizards_1987
Guess Lounge Lizards are a step above Lot Lizards…
If you’re in the 747, waaaaaaay above!
Holy shit Leisure Suit Larry. I have not read that in over 20 years. Wasn’t it a porn game???
All the “sex” happened behind black bars. It was mostly just a raunchy, funny, point and click adventure game.
The good / bad balance existed even then.
Good:
1) Lounges
Bad:
1) Everyone smoked, even on the plane.
2) New York to LA, or NY to London tickets, as far as I can find for the ’70s and after inflation, were $2500 and up, for a regular ticket. First class with the lounge would of course be far more.
So, maybe Hawaiian shirt guy isn’t out of his league. He’s quite wealthy.
F U money is the best money.
Performing now in the Bubble Lounge: Bennie Bluewater and his Fabulous Upper Deckers
I can’t wait to hear the tales Joey McBrownsuit is going to tell once he finishes that entire glass of primo bourbon. They’ll probably be about the time he flew Air India and got to fly Kama Sutra class.
Can we take a second to ponder why the person in the Emirates video was groping all the snacks like that? I mean sure, pull one out for the camera, but ease up on the frottage
I’ve flown about 300-400K miles mostly for work and I’ve been on a 767 twice, and 0 times on a 747, 787, A380, or any of the cool planes 🙁
I’ve flown on all of those but it’s been awhile. How nice the aircraft is depends a good bit on the airline I think.
Back in the day, Continental had really nice cabins for its transatlantic flights. Did business class mostly but would use miles to upgrade to 1st a couple of times. Then United bought them. It was just a lower grade.
For transpacific, Quantas was about the nicest airline I’ve flown, but Air New Zealand was pretty good too.
I haven’t done an A380 or a 767. Honestly, no sure I’d want to. My parents flew a British Airways A380 from DFW LHR a year ago, and said that it was in a bad state.
The 380 is a nice ride. It’s much quieter and smoother, especially in the upper deck.
Also… all the BA 380s are being overhauled this year and will get all new interiors. They probably are a touch worn down at the moment.
I can’t even remember all the aircraft I’ve flown on as a passenger. From 1996 through 2008, I flew on over 2100 flights.
717, 727, 737, 747, 757, 767, 777, 787, DC-9, DC-10, MD-11, MD-80, MD-88, MD-90, A319, A320, A321, CRJ-550/700/900, Dornier/Fairchild 328, (prop and jet) Jetstream 31, Beechcraft 1900D, Saab 340 A/B/B+, ATR 42/72, DASH-8/Q400, Embraer ERJ jets, Fairchild Metroliners, and probably more that I’ve forgotten.
Most of those weren’t that cool. Other than the NW 747 and the Midwest 328JET.
I’m almost at 1M miles on DL/NWA.
The most shocking to me a few years ago was getting out of a Delta 737-8 and onto an ancient MD-80 and marveling at how much roomier and comfortable the old seats were.
Lame as it is, I think my favorite plane to fly on regularly was an ERJ 145. It felt like it cut through weather rather than get bounced around by it and being 3 abreast you are guaranteed to always have a window or aisle seat.
I don’t fly much but I’m so old I can remember when MD-80’s were the new “quiet” planes. Yes, if you were seated way up front, but if way in the back, oof.
I switched from Delta to United because Delta was still flying old 747s to Japan while United had new and much nicer 777s. They were pretty miserable in economy if you had to sit in the center section with 2-5-2 seating.
My one and only good experience on a 747 was also the last trip on one where we splurged and spend airline miles for a business class seat from Frankfurt to Chicago.
holy shit that’s so much flying on regionals!
I used to live and work out of Greenville SC, so almost everything (like 98%) was a regional to a hub like ATL ORD IAD or DFW, and then a regional afterwards to get to the company that’s in the middle of nowhere but with good logistics.
BTW Ohare is one of the best airports to depart from in the world because there are multiple terminals each with their own independent security lines and times when they are busy so you rarely get held up if you just walk to the building next to you after you check your bag. On arrival though expect to taxi for almost as long as your flight was.
O’hare is awful because I always get held up by weather delays.
JFK is exactly the same, so is LGA
I was lucky that my first flight ever was on a Swissair 747-400(?) with the extended upper deck, which is where I was seated. It was coach not first class. I’m not sure if I ever flew on another 747 again, but I remember that sometime in the mid-90’s Air France had “Tempo” class or something, and there were stand-up lounges to go in and smoke. My only other “classic” plane memory was a janky, rattly L-1011 on Delta with mismatched seats. I’m a little concerned about the trend of single-aisle transatlantic flights, but we’ll see how it goes.
“My only other “classic” plane memory was a janky, rattly L-1011 on Delta with mismatched seats.”
Same memory. Alternating orange, yellow, and teal, and stuck in the middle of the 5-abreast economy center section. It’s amusing to read of how fond aviation enthusiasts are of the L1011. Like the 757, the onboard engineering doesn’t mean the passenger experience is any good.
My impression at the time was that the seats were not designed that way- “contrasting and coordinating”. The patterns were different and they clearly looked like they were salvaged from another plane.
“There are no more passenger 747s”
Not true.
There are about 20 remaining – of which Lufthansa has the most.
https://simpleflying.com/4-airlines-still-fly-passenger-boeing-747s-what-premium-class-ticket-costs/
BTW – your Restaurant? Pub? Piano Bar?
None of these were on the upper deck.
You can tell – not just because there are clearly seating sections behind them and/or the ceilings are high and flat – but there are too many windows.
Early 747s only had 3 windows per side and small exit doors – which is why, per FAA regulations, no seats were permitted up there.
Yup – for US-based travelers, Lufthansa is the game. I was lucky enough to have a business trip last fall and got to ride upstairs on a 747. Layover in Frankfurt was a 747 paradise. Every look out the lounge window had at least one or two visible. One of the asia airlines that still runs them had a heavy presence there too. I fumbled my phone and didn’t get the pic, but it’s burned in my mind seeing 2 747s at gates, one taxiing away and one taking off. Felt like being in Jurassic park or something!
Yes, Air China and Korean Air still fly them too.
Air quality is crap here in Portland today thanks to the fires. Does this mean I can have a 747 lounge for a few days? I’ll settle for a conversation pit for my living room.
About 20 years ago I was fortunate enough to fly in the upper level of a 747. It was a long-haul trip to Asia from either ORD or DTW, and it was really quite nice. I must mention that I did not pay for the ticket; my client had that happy privilege. 🙂
There was no lounge, of course, and my section was at the top of the stairway. IIRC it was called Business-First, and there was an Actual First section toward the nose of the aircraft. It was similar to the KLM diagram ^^^, but I seem to recall that instead of seats we had individual pods that could extend and flatten into a semi-reasonable facsimile of a bed; they were comfortable. The seat layout was two-and-two, and each pair was separated by a small table. There were maybe 20 seats total in that section.
We had our own crew of flight attendants, who looked after us very well. There was a separate room near the staircase where we could store our carryon bags and access them with minimal effort.
The whole environment was… quiet. Well, as quiet as the interior of a large passenger jet in flight is likely to be.
I didn’t mind that sort of travel at the time but am glad I don’t need to do it any more. It’s the sort of trip where you board, have a drink and a snack, take off, have a meal, watch a movie, take a nap, then wake up and realize you still have eight hours to go. 😮
My dad was an Airport manager for Garuda Indonesia in Australia until 1988 and I got to fly a lot internationally because of it. I distinctly recall going into the upper deck lounge of a 747, as I remember being enamored with the spiral staircase, and I also recall cigarettes. But looking back I’m not sure what airline it was, since Garuda never had lounges and QANTAS discontinued them before I was born.
There wasn’t enough disinfectant in the world to clean those interiors.
’70s people were a tougher breed and did’t care. Pass the smokes.
Maybe.
But doctors also handed out antibiotics like candy.
Hence why carpet in bathrooms seemed okay, and why we now have so many strains of antibiotic resistant bacteria.
I recall carpeted bathrooms and kitchens from my childhood. Dear God why!!
Think of it as constant fumigation.
My first trip to Europe was to rebuild some semiconductor equipment for the company I worked for. They needed me back in a hurry when I was done, and the only flight available was a first class ticket on Lufthansa. This was in 1978, and it was on a 747 with the upstairs lounge. As the stewardess came around with the appetizers, either lobster salad or Beluga caviar, I looked at her and, jokingly asked “You have Beluga caviar and you don’t have a bottle of Stoli frozen in a block of ice?” expecting a laugh. What I got was “Oh, I’m sorry sir,” and her leaving to the galley and coming back with a bottle of Stoli frozen in a bottle of ice. Yes, air travel was different back in the day.
The crap to “good stuff” ratio went wildly askew once Jason was sent the Automoblow and the world has been paying the price ever since with things like wars, fuel prices, favorite sports ball team losing, etc.. Don’t let him deceive you into thinking he never un-boxed it, he merely didn’t open the second one he never told us about.
The Jon Stewart term is “enshittification”
Cory Doctorow actually.
I was very disappointed to discover that Cory Doctorow does NOT, in fact, wear a cape and goggles
“Writer Cory Doctorow coined the term enshittification in an essay about Amazon in 2022″* about hid experience with Amazon.
It was the ‘American dialect society’ word of the year 2023
I think it hits a nerve bc I think all of us with at least average intelligence have experienced tech products getting worse as tech companies ‘business model’ has shifted in to how can we sell you shit you dont need? And lock you in to subscriptions and then put adds on top to sell to advertisers, etc…
Enshitification of course is Not limited to big tech and bringing it back to cars… new cars with apple carplay and or Android Auto and or…. that may now feature ads as soon as you start up your car that you bought and paid for. BMW apparently did this recently with a banner ad for the new Spiderman film, click on the banner on your BMW center screen and up pops the full ad infuriating owners And this is sadly Not limited to BMW…^
*ref: https://gizmodo.com/enshittification-is-officially-the-biggest-word-of-the-year-2000530173
^
https://theautowire.com/2026/08/05/bmw-spider-man-dash-ad-how-it-got-into-your-car-and-why-nobody-can-stop-it/
Now do air ships.
If the Tiger Lounge was in the upper deck, I am a bit concerned about the stairway that seems to lead to the exterior of the plane. Probably a good reason it did not make it into production.
I saw that as well, and was wondering if it went up to yet another level with a crew rest area.
Tiger lounge looks like the nose of the main deck.
The piano bar too.
That makes sense. Picture must have been taken facing rearward (aft? stern?).
Came here to post the same thing.
Maybe there was a railed-off section on the roof where you could comfortably sip your beverage at 40,000 feet.
That’s the smoking area.
Tough to keep those smokes lit with the breeze.
In lieu of the chance to hang out in an upper deck, I’d gladly volunteer to upper deck whoever decided to put more seats than windows in planes.
I’ll be That Guy: a few of your examples are on the main deck, although the overall point still stands and maybe moreso: while the upper deck wasn’t originally all that useful for seating, it’s crazy how many rows (at 10 seats per row) airlines gave up for these lounges. If anyone got to experience them, I’d love to hear what it was like in real life.
Not only that, but the Tiger Lounge appears to be below deck, inasmuch as the walls are curving inward at the bottom and the stairs go up.
I was just a kid at the time but the advantage of being a kid is that people were pretty indulgent about letting kids check out the lounge. I don’t remember anything shocking but they were very very smoky and they were pretty full and well-used.
As a late Gen-X kid I recall basically having free reign damn near anywhere.
I think even as late as the ’70s there just weren’t as many people flying; not so many people with a reason to fly. Using the upstairs as a lounge might attract more passengers to fill the main cabin on less popular routes.
Prior to deregulation in 1978, most people couldn’t AFFORD to fly. Wide bodies were used on shorter flights than they are now. They simply couldn’t fill all the space with seats and fill the plane.
Keep in mind that in the late-60s, it was assumed that supersonic was the future. Fuel costs made supersonic uneconomical and the widebodies that were expected to be relegated to cargo by the Concorde and 2707 ended up flying for decades.
A number of airlines still fly passenger 747s, notably Lufthansa and Korean Air.
Having flown back in the day, what the pictures don’t show was that absolutely EVERYBODY was smoking like chimneys up there in the lounge. Gross. But in theory, they were pretty cool. Though that Air India one – eesh. The 70s, when taste died completely.
I will take a modern lay-flat business or first class seat over the recliners and a lounge of back in the day any day. Or for the ludicrously well-off the crazy first-class suites that the Middle Eastern airlines are so fond of. And thank GOD smoking was banned just about the time I started flying for a living 30-odd years ago. Flying sucked because of that when I was an asthmatic kid, with the worst being a trip to England right after college where I was stuck in the last row of the non-smoking section on TWA. Blech.
I was around when planes had “smoking sections”, which meant nothing since we non-smokers were sucking in the same foul air.
Yes, but that was just about anywhere. People were smoking in McDonald’s, the waiting room at the doctor, every restaurant and bar, in the mall, on the bus…
…in their hospital rooms, FFS…
In Ireland, hospitals gave Guinness to nursing mothers.
They were probably also smoking, but had to buy their own cigarettes (unless prescribed for asthma).
That tracks….Asthema? Take a smoke.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/asthma-cigarettes/
Much harder to get away from it in an airplane. MUCH harder.
Ditto. Absolutely vile.
I’m convinced I went through nicotine withdrawl my freshman year of college…
Dad smoked heavily from 16 to roughly 76. He does not now and freely admits he should have quit decades ago. I’ve never admitted to him that I was afraid that his health was so poor that he would not survive my college years. Blessedly that never happened, but it was always in the back of my mind. I was worried that at 20 or so I would be caring for mom and my younger brother, with no safety net.
Similar for me too! I never smoked but I did go bowling a lot which meant I was basically smoking. There was a noticeable effect on my body and bowling for weeks when smoking was banned inside most buildings.
To be fair I don’t think modern air India planes look that much different.
https://airindia.scene7.com/is/image/airindia/A350_Economy_wide_angle
https://lattesandrunways.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/AirIndia-BusinessClass-4-rotated.jpeg
You know what they say about Japan being in the 2000s since the 1970s.
I’ve heard it said India has been in the 70s since the 70s.
But yes those nice lay flat seats. And the pods if your company can afford it. Plus some airlines that have full beds and showers in their wide body’s and super jumbos. All much more comfortable then whatever brown or avocado green thing you were sitting on in smoke, bruit, and patchouli filled air in the 70s.
I kind of like the red seats in economy. Cheerful. But having read what an airplane chock full of Indians is like, ya, not an airline I have ANY interest in flying.
That’s there absolutely most modern wide body interior.
This is more indicative of their fleet but even that might be nicer then most of it.
https://upgradedpoints.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/Air-India-A320-Economy-DOH-BOM-seats.jpg
I think It’s sounds like hell and I’ve heard horror stories about the food and cleanliness. I’ve flown indigo within India and it was fine. Nothing special but not really terrifying. Maybe the closest thing in the US is one of the American operated by Republic.
Their cabins look normal.
https://www.bangaloreaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/IndiGo_A320neo_VT-ITC_Cabin_Front_DSC_6134_2560px_WM.jpg
Still cheery, though I like the all-red better. I’m sure it’s fine on a short trip, but over the ocean all the way to India – er, no, thanks. Ultimately, as much as I love to fly, no thanks to anything over 8hrs, even in first class. I refuse to fly less than business over water regardless.
I love Republic. They fly my favorite current airliner, the ERJ-175. Flying to Maine on one tomorrow evening from DCA in fact, after a hop up from Columbia SC on a CRJ700. Plus thier callsign is Brickyard (based in Indiana) – got to love that.
DCA terminal C is always an interesting place especially on a Thursday evening. Im glad they did something about 35x. That was always a shitshow.
I don’t mind Republic but I liked the ERJ-190s Jet Blue used to fly better. I used to fly on those from DCA to BOS a good amount. Little more comfortable less hectic better snacks drinks and flight attendants. I’ve seen some stuff on Republic especially from the gateway to the south. CLT I try to avoid it.
Sky West can be decent. But I’ve heard troubling things about them from other people including FAA types that don’t really say much in that way. I’ve flown on breeze once just to see how it was. I think they are running the ex jet blue ERJ-190s. It was fine sort of like jet blue meets frontier but more to jet blue.
I got used to flying crazy long flights. I used to catch UA-1 at least a few times a year. You go a little bit cabin crazy. Their flight attendants suck big time. Super power trippy because you are on what is either the longest commercial flight in the world or very close to by a matter of minutes. I witnessed a guy almost pee himself because some old hag was power tripping. Thank God for the random gay guy flight attendant that came out of no where and went yes please go then took her for a talking to.
It is virtually impossible to create a parody of 70s design or fashion that is more over-the-top than the real thing. It’s all simultaneously ghastly and wonderful.
And no natural fibers anywhere, everything was Rayon or heavy double knit polyester
This is why all of us Gen X kids were taught stop, drop, and roll in case we caught on fire.
Love me some Roger Moore era Bond when in the proper mood. I also fully understand why Connery wisely started saying NO.
My mom had avocado green in her kitchen. I know one aunt had harvest gold.
Yup, my house as a kid had an avocado green bathroom, a Pepto pink bathroom, and the full harvest gold kitchen including appliances, so basically the opposite of “Millennial Grey”.
We still have a virtually unused small late 70s bathroom in our basement. The color is a purplish brown that looks like a rotten eggplant fruit. Of course, the toilet bowl is in the basically extinct German poo-shelf style (Google “Flachspüler” at your own risk).