What Was The First Airline You Flew On? How Old Were You?

[arwalden]

My first flight was in 1970 at age 10 on a "Southern Airways" prop-jet. I think that "prop-jet" was the term I heard. (Trof, can you advise?)

[eyesroll]

1. I think it was Delta

I was a year and a half old, 1977, Chicago to New Orleans.
The first flight I remember was Delta, 1980-ish, to Orlando. (My parents were pretty loyal to Delta back then.)

[alwynsw]

10. What a young'un!

We still had to crank start the things when I was that age. lol

[Tracer]

Showing my age ...

... I was 10 in 1950 and my Dad and I flew from Manchester, NH to Boston on a DC 3 (the kind that sat low in the tail, so that you walked uphill to your seat).

[GOPisEvil]

2. On my 2nd birthday, I flew from Athens to Frankfurt on Lufthansa!

It was a 747, and somewhere in my house, or my parents' house, the metal Lufthansa 747 toy sits in a closet, MUCH the worse for wear.

This was June of 1970. :-)


Edit - found a picture of the toy (in perfect condition):

[arwalden]

24. JAL Was My First Foreign Airline... Lufthansa Was My Second

I wonder if flight is as exciting for kids today as it was for me back in the early 70's.

Did you ever take an extra bar of mini-soap from the lavatory to keep as a souvenir?

-- Allen

[GOPisEvil]

27. Ya know...I think I have the wings they gave me too...

I never took the soap, but I liked the toys they give the kids. Darnit!I wonder where those wings ended up.

[arwalden]

30. We're On The Same Wavelength... I just typed a "wings pin" message...

and then I read this one from you.

I'm CERTAIN that your wings must be worth SOMETHING, if you can find them. Ebayers will buy ANYTHING.

-- Allen

[terrya]

3. American Airlines. I was 32.

I was flying home from Dallas, Texas (where I was then living) to my hometown of Decatur, Illinois.

It was cool, because I had to fly into O'Hare (where I'd never been before). A friend of mine then picked me up at O' Hare and drove me to Decatur.

[sasquatch]

4. ComAir Dayton to Cincinnati

Then I took a American Airways flight to Fort Lauterdale A.K.A Fort Liquirdale:beer:

[Bruce McAuley]

5. Back when that DC-3 was a LOT newer in 1949 or so..

It was flying for a non-sched airline called ATA(Air Transport Associates), and my mother was the stewardess, and stuck me in the back for the flight to Chicago from Seattle. I vividly remember an apple suspended in mid-air on one of the many "bumps" from that flight. I was about 3 years old or so.

Bruce

[Bronco69]

6. I was 21

flew United from Toledo, Ohio to Las Vegas. :-)

[Hogarth]

7. Aer Lingus ...

... at age forty-five, for a fantastic vacation in Ireland.

[alwynsw]

8. Dad's Airways - if that counts - if not, well I had to ask Mom

Pop was a pilot. He kept flying after WWII. He was an 8th Air Corps bomber pilot.

I asked mom. She said that we always flew Pan Am or TWA, depending on our destination. I was a babe in arms for the first flight.

[MadMike]

9. Mohawk Airlines (Piedmont) - Fayetteville, NC....

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

11. TWA in 1959....the trip seemed endless, but I remember

the scenery it was very clear.
Oh, LAX to the old KC downtown airport.

[Bozola]

12. MATS Connie

A long, long time ago when my Bastardhood was less than complete.

(Connie - Most beautiful damn plane ever built)
(MATS - A bunch of wonderful damn lunatics)

Well, Hell and Damnation! Post #666.

[brook]

13. American.

1951. LaGuardia to Mexico City. After 3 years in Mexico, I became a stew for American.

[Sir_Shrek]

14. American Airlines...

I was probably about 5 or 6.

[dwckabal]

15. Eastern Airlines

probably about 12 years old, 1979

[YNGW]

16. Southern

Tupelo, MS to Memphis, TN to catch a connection to Phoenix, AZ.
Age - 5
Type Plane - Martin 404 (similar to the DC-3 you have pictured but with nose wheel instead of tail-dragger)

[Bombero1956]

20. Eastern Airlines

late 1957, flight was from JFK (Idlewild Airport at the time)to San Juan Puerto Rico. I was almost 2 years old, my brother was a little over 1 and my mom was pregnant with my brother AJ, talk about a handfull. My brother Ed and I were born in the same year.

[caledesi]

17. OMG! I feel old. Allegheny Airlines (now US Air) from Providence, RI

to Washington, DC. My best friend ordered a "cocktail" ($1 at that time)...whoa....it wasn't even a 727. We were 21, and oh, so innocent.

I feel old. Stop these questions. We are talking 1967!

edit: typos

[spinbaby]

46. Ah...Agony Airlines

They may have changed their name but they're still good old Agony Airlines.

[Philostopher]

18. Most likely Delta.

And circa 1970, from Orlando to Cincinnati, so I'd have been six or seven.

My family used to go on vacation near Tampa every two or three years -- we'd all pile in the station wagon (Mom, Dad, three of us kids and two elderly grandmothers) and haul down I-75 early in the summer for a couple of weeks.

My sister went with us that trip, but she was actually working and living on her own and had to get back to go to work on Monday (Dad would usually take a day either end to recover before he went back to work). Dad bought two tickets because he thought one of the grandmothers might want to fly back, instead of spending two solid days in the car; both were so afraid of flying (neither ever got on a plane before she died), the ticket would have gone unused. Sis decided she didn't mind keeping an eye on me overnight, so I flew back on the spare ticket, instead.

I remember it was overcast most of the flight, about all we were able to see was part of Tennessee. The food stank, mostly; we had rubber chicken and a pear half with blueberries gobbed in the middle that was utterly tasteless. I don't remember thinking any of it was a big deal -- maybe because we couldn't really see anything out the windows.

I didn't fly again until around 1990. I've only flown four or five times in my life, as a matter of fact. Mostly on Delta -- Cincinnati was the nearest airport, mostly, and it's a Delta hub.

[jayfish]

19. It Was Either Eastern Or Piedmont & I Was...

7 or 8 years old. Flew from DC to Grand Rapids and Back.

Jay

[kcwayne]

21. Ozark Airlines

I was 20 years old, and sat next to Coach Robinson of the Illinois State Redbird basketball team. This was shortly after another basketball team had all died in a plane crash, and I remember talking to him about that, worried that he might be jinxing my first flight.

He was struggling with a team of Pro-ball wannabes, that had seen a brief fling with fame when Doug Collins attracted attention with his play at the Munich Olympics and the scouts had started looking at the Redbird program. So of course all of these guys got a basketball jones and started shooting it everytime they touched it. The coach probably took the record for the team with the fewest passes in collegiate history with that team.

[Bertha Venation]

22. Reno Air - age 34.

I don't know what kind of plane it was.

[ProfessorGAC]

23. Braniff, To Florida, Via St. Louis

I think that was it. I was about 14 or 15 years old. Not really sure exactly. Since i've flown about 500 times since, even the first one is not memorable anymore.
The Professor

[underpants]

25. Piedmont I think and I was about 8 years old.

We suddenly had to fly from Richmond to Huntington as my grandmother was dying.

[arwalden]

28. Did They Give You A "Pilot's Wings" Pin...

In honor of your first flight?

-- Allen

[underpants]

29. Actually I think they did

I had forgotten all about that.

[Padraig18]

26. Aer Lingus, at age 11.

Shannon to Chicago, with a stop in Boston.

[CanuckAmok]

59. Hee Hee!! "Lingus" always makes me blush!

[curse10]

31. Continental Airlines, 1982

I was 3, but I still remember getting my wing pin and seeing the cockpit- back when they let you do that sort of thing :-)

[RebelOne]

32. Eastern to New York, sometime in the '80s.

[trackfan]

33. I was 20; and the last time I rode I was 24 - over 20 years ago n/t

[flamingyouth]

34. Western Airlines

"The ooooooonly way to fly!" as their ads went. It was the early '70s, I was four or five. We were going to SF and I got a pin with wings on it and got to meet the captain. I loved it.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

35. In 1967 at age 17

I flew Pan Am from New York to London-Heathrow. It was the first leg of a five-week trip with my family.

In those days, you bought a ticket to the most expensive city on your itinerary, and you could fly among all the others.

After exploring England for a while, we flew BEA to Oslo, then Braathens to Trondheim and back, then SAS to Copenhagen, then Lufthansa to Hannover, explored Germany and Austria for a while, picked up another Lufthansa in Cologne and flew to Paris, then Air France from Paris to Amsterdam, and then KLM from Amsterdam to New York. All on one ticket, mind you.

Flying was a whole different experience. Seats were five across instead of six across, and there was plenty of leg room (I've been the same height since age 14, and I don't remember feeling cramped on any flight before about 1990.) The food was actually GOOD. On the Amsterdam-New York flight we had rib eye steak, and this was in coach.

One clear indication of how much flying has changed is what happened when our flight from London to Oslo was delayed for two hours. A BEA rep came out, apologized profusely and practically on bended knee, and led us all into a side room where we were treated to tea and a sandwich buffet. Quite a contrast to the "sit down and stop asking annoying questions" attitude that today's airlines take toward delays.

The reason that we could fly all over Europe on one ticket was that the airlines were heavily regulated and had to charge the same prices. This made flying more expensive than it is now in relative terms, but meant that the airlines had to compete on service, not on price.

The only recent flying experience I've had that even comes CLOSE to the old days is when I flew to Japan on All Nippon Airways (ANA) in 2002.

[arwalden]

37. Today's Service Reminds Me Of "People's Express" Airlines

Only, back then People's Express was doing it as an alternative and a way to fly on a budget.

Now it's a way-of-life for the airlines... self serve, bag lunches, cramped seating, sit-down, shut-up, and what's that SMELL?

I read/heard that one airline is about to start CHARGING extra for in-flight meals. I remember when it was included on any flight that was in the air during a "traditional" meal time.

Now it seems that you get NO meal on ANY flight that's lasts for 3 hours or less. That's pretty much ALL of them except non-stop cross country or flights to Europe or Hawaii or Asia.

== Allen

[Lydia Leftcoast]

54. You heard right

"I read/heard that one airline is about to start CHARGING extra for in-flight meals. I remember when it was included on any flight that was in the air during a "traditional" meal time."

That's good old Northwest, affectionately known as "Northworst" to its many un-fans in the MSP base. Its New York-Minneapolis runs, which I flew frequently in the 1970s, were at the bottom of the quality heap even then, although they would seem luxurious today. Its meals were already low-end TV dinner quality, and the flight attendants were crabby.

They brought out decent food and nice flight attendants only for the routes where they had competition, such as Los Angeles to Honolulu.

By 2000, they were serving tiny little trays of cheese-free mac and cheese. That's when I started buying a sub in the terminal and taking it on board. I haven't flow them internationally since 1987, but I hear that they no longer worry much about service on any route.

[SiobhanClancy]

36. BOAC...age 4

Now British Airways. I don't remember much about it,though:)

[Zomby Woof]

38. Pacific Southwest Airlines

Known as PSA, and was taken over by USAirways back in the 80's.

I was 15 months old, in the fall of 1968. A short flight from San Diego to San Jose. Apparently, I was a big hit with the flight attendants, because let's face it, I was one helluva cute baby! :D

[GOPisEvil]

39. Was it PSA that had the smiley face on the radar dome of the planes?

Imagine this ---> :-) coming at you while you waited for the plane in the terminal.

It was!!!! Look! How cute!

[Zomby Woof]

42. I put it there!

I was just so damned cute I even made the plane smile! :D

[GOPisEvil]

43. You made her smile, too.

Here's the whole site: http://www.catchoursmile.com/

[Zomby Woof]

49. I bet I did!

I was the hit of the flight! By all accounts, I was a happy baby.

The grumpiness came later, probably because of the damn Republicans who have managed to get in the WH in my lifetime. :D

[BiggJawn]

40. American Airlines. I was 34.

And me with 6 hours in a 150 and an hour in a sailplane at that time!

[PartyPooper]

41. As I recall, it was Capitol Airways in 1960 on a connection to D.C.

I was 12 at the time. I believe shortly thereafter they were either bought out...or, went out of business.

During this same period, one of my favourite early flights was from California to Chicago (I believe it was Chicago) on a TWA Constellation. It was a very long flight but, it was so much fun!

Some of the other airlines I've flown that are no longer around:
Eastern, Pan Am, Western, PSA, and People's Express. (I've flown Southern, too. Are they still flying?)

:-)

[arwalden]

44. Whatever Happened To...

Were they bought-out or did they just fold?

[ronnykmarshall]

48. I think they folded.

Damn! So many airlines are gone.

PSA, Pan Am, TWA, Eastern, Western, Air West .... looks like all that will be left will be United, America and Southwest.

[CanuckAmok]

69. Hopefully Alaska Air will survive!

Great airline for us West-coasters!

[SheilaT]

85. National was taken over by Pan Am

but I can't remember exactly when. Late 70's I think.

[spinbaby]

45. I was three

It was 1957 and I flew from New York to Frankfurt. Couldn't tell you what airline it was.

[ronnykmarshall]

47. United 737

I was 18 years old. Flew to Bakersfield to LA (short flight) and then to San Diego (PSA).

I love to fly.

[5thGenDemocrat]

50. Delta Airlines, Louisville to Indianapolis, March 1974

Coming home on leave after basic training. Took off through an electrical storm and it was the only time I've ever been afraid of flying (figuring if that flight didn't kill me, none of 'em would).
I was 17.
John
Who has still never been to a circus. But, though I'm also a minor-league hockey writer by trade, I haven't ever been to a Detroit Red Wings game, either.

[devilgrrl]

51. Mohawk Airlines at the tender age of 3...

[Snow]

52. A TWA Super Connie - I was 7, so, ummmm, 1953. Hm.

That was a while ago. Los Angeles to Indianapolis and back, summer with the grandparents. I really don't remember the flight all that well; what stuck better was the fun time with grandfolks & cousins. The next time I got on a plane was in 1970 when I joined the Peace Corps....then I put on some serious flying miles for a few years.

[trof]

53. trof answers and advises.

Answer: Don't know type a/c or airline, but I would have been around 2 or 3. 1944? Fron L.A. to Birmingham, AL, with several stops along the way, I'm sure. I am told that this future pilot threw up almost every inch of the way.

Advice: prop-jet is aka turbo-prop. It's a jet engine, driving a propeller. A/C pictured is a DC-3, piston engine, prop. In 1970 you might have been on a turbo-prop, but I doubt it, not on Southern.

[DemoTex]

58. Southern Airways had DC-3s and Martin 404s, neither prop-jets.

Southern did not operate turboprop aircraft as a transition from propeller equipment to pure jets, as other airlines did. Southern was the only airline to transition from propeller-driven equipment to jet aircraft without utilizing the intermediate turboprops. By the beginning of the 1970's, Southern was flying 75 and 95 passenger DC-9 jets and 40-passenger Martin 404 propeller equipment. (More)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Airways

What Southern Airways did have was bitter labor problems between pilots and CEO Frank W. Hulse, III.

[cosmicdot]

55. remember Piedmont Airlines? at 20 ...

I think it's all part of USAir now (Allegheny, etc.)

c.1970

[DemoTex]

61. I was a Piedmont pilot.

It was the greatest company I have ever worked for. For a while there, we got cash bonuses at Christmas. A crisp $100 bill. The bonuses at US Airways were usually layoffs and concession requests.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

71. My sister works for Piedmont/UsAirways

And has since the eighties.
She told me that the GOP still has outstanding bills from the Dole/Clinton election of 1996.
I have a cousin who used to pilot for Piedmont and has said that the buyout was the worst thing ever for a once great company. My sister still feels alot of sentiment for Piedmont.

[Skittles]

56. I went to England at age 2

I have no idea what kind of plane

[ikojo]

70. Didja kick anyone's ass? nt

[regnaD kciN]

57. Western Air Lines...

...from L.A. to Seattle (where, ironically, I now live), for the 1962 World's Fair. I was 5 1/2 at the time.

[AlFrankenFan]

60. Let's see...

I was two months old, it was 1990, and my mom tells me it was a United flight from Virginia to San Fransisco.

[JM]

62. I am pretty sure it was

Lufthansa. We were flying from Dallas, and I am pretty sure it was 1968 and I was 2. My dad was in the Air Force stateside in the Medical Corps, and my mother was flying home for some reason. As my dad tells the story, my mother got flustered when they announced the final boarding, since she was juggling me and three bags. A kind uniformed officer asked her if he could help, so she handed me over to him. My father wasn't there, so he asked my mother for a description of the uniform worn by her assistant. He was really upset when he found out it was a four-star, and almost passed out when he believed it was one of the Joint Chiefs that was in town.

Later,
JM

[CanuckAmok]

63. BOAC (later to become British Airways) 707

JFK to Heathrow, when I was 6. I still have my "Junior Jet Club" metal(!) wings and log book somewhere.



Just look at that monster!!

[DemoTex]

64. I first flew on Delta in 1965 (I had a private pilot license at the time).

ATL-SAV-CHS in a "Golden Crown" DC-7B.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

65. 1987-People's Express

Remember them? What a name for an airline!
My father had just died that morning and I don't remember anything about the flight except being on a crying jag and seeing NYC from Newark.

[SoCalDem]

66. MATS...1953

from somewhere in Florida to Panama.. I was 3 1/2..

[geniph]

67. I was 26, and it was Northwest Orient

(now just Northwest Airlines). Flew from Seattle to Detroit at Christmas - can you say MADHOUSE? I thought you could.

Before then, flying was for rich people. Kids from the projects didn't fly in airliners.

[ikojo]

68. I was 18 and it was the precursor

to TWA in St Louis...Ozark Airlines.

I was PETRIFIED!


:scared:

[SheilaT]

86. Ummm, Ozark was not a precursor

to TWA, but a separate entity entirely.

[populistmom]

72. I was 10 months old, so I have no clue.

:shrug:
And no one can make me call my mom for this. It's bad enough that I've got to have her over all day Saturday.

[Booberdawg]

73. Age 19 "Southern Scareways"

I joined the Army Reserves and had to go to boot camp in Alabama. It was very turbulent and we were flipped and flopped and jostled all over and I BARFED!

Thank goodness for the complimentary barf bags supplied in front of every seat.

[LWolf]

74. I was 5.

It was a TWA flight. I don't remember what sort of plane. It was 1965, and my mom was in trouble. She put me on the plane to send me to my grandparents while she worked out her difficulties. Long before it became a common practice to put kids on planes by themselves. The plane couldn't land due to weather difficulties, so it went on to land at another airport a few hours a way. They put me on a bus back to my original destination, where my terrified grandparents finally claimed me. I think I slept most of the way on the bus.

[ornotna]

77. It was 1962

and I think it was KLM.
I know we used to fly KLM alot, my mom liked them.






And for 400 I post in the wrong spot. Doh!

[Capn Sunshine]

75. United , 1958

DC-6
Tres chic. Back then to travel you wore good clothes.Like going to church

[DemoTex]

76. DC-6 ... powered by four R-2800s.

[shanti]

78. pan am to japan

1960

[Bill of Rights]

79. Northwest Orient Airlines

From Minneapolis to Tokyo when I was seven. I lived as an expatriate for 11 years...basically for my entire youth.

[dae]

80. I think it was/is(?) called Aviataca. Flew with my brother-in-law to

Guatemala so he could renew his Visa. Something kept hitting the outside of the plane, my b-n-l told me not to worry, it was only rivets. Can I tell you, I wanted to whip his ass! It was 1970 and I was "sweet" 17.O8)

[neebob]

81. United, DC-9, age 8. nt

[scottcsmith]

82. 1986

Portland to Chicago. I think it might have been Delta or United. I was on my way to Navy boot camp, Great Lakes, IL.

I was 17.

[Norbert]

83. Delta to Miami, Fla at 19

I think a Boeng 727 but I'm not really sure anymore.

[Cleita]

84. Pan American DC-3 in 1941.

I was a year old. I don't remember it but my mother said that I cried and rolled on the floor for the whole flight because of ear aches caused by the unpressurized cabin. I'm glad I don't remember.

[SheilaT]

87. If you flew in and out of DCA

(that's Washington National Airport) from January 1969 to August 1979 on either Mohawk or Allegheny Airlines, I may well have been the ticket counter agent who was rude to you. Or maybe even nice. Depended on my mood, the weather, and the passengers themselves.

My first flight was on TWA in Sept 1968 from Tucson to Los Angeles.

[Twillig]

88. Republic Airlines 1970

I was 6. Dunno what plane it was. From Minnesota to Seattle. Took a flight on Western from there to Alaska.

[Valerie5555]

89. First flight I could remember was on Air Canada when I was nearly 4

when we moved to Calgary and the "maurauding wa - aower" and Asscrotch or Ashcroft "fenderoff" extraordinaire or calico kitty, Ginger came with us. Wa- aow wa-aow wa-aow.