Where is the glamour?

A flight attendant friend sent this youtube video. It’s nice peak into the past. It’s also a great comparison between the air travel “experience” of yesteryear versus the “cattle-car,” “Greyhound,” mode of transportation we experience today. Whatever happened to the glamour of air travel? Gosh, I don’t know where to begin.

Let’s first compare the passengers. OH MY GOD! These people actually dressed up when they traveled. Everyone’s dressed in his or her Sunday best. I was floored to see men in suits (well, I take that back. Most business travelers today do dress in business or business casual attire.), women in their nice dresses and up-dos, and children nicely groomed in their respective attire. It’s like a take back from the Ward & June Cleaver days. Today, suits and dresses are the exception. Common attire for airline travel is flip-flops, tank tops, t-shirts with vulgar personal expressions, and the latest in grunge/ghetto wear. OH, on all-nighter flights, pajama bottoms, bunny slippers, and one’s security pillow and blanket from home is a must. I understand that travel attire should be comfortable; however, I believe there is a fine line between comfortable and tacky!

The next item for contention is food. When was the last time you saw food on the airplane? I’m not talking about airport concessions in bag, which by the way is another topic for contention, but 3 to 4 courses serve to you on sectionalized trays. You have one tray for your flatware, another for your roll, another for your salad, one for your dessert, and lastly your entrée. Better yet, how about 7 serving carts of food that takes 2 hours to serve (kinda like the video)? I remember when I first started flying, international First Class passengers were exposed to appetizers, caviar or sushi, salad with choice of toppings and dressing, 3 choices of entrée ranging from Chateaubriand to seafood medley, fruit and cheese, and the piece de resistance of 3 types of dessert to include ice cream sundaes, cheesecakes, napoleons to name a few. Then a short reprieve before more food would be served (a mid-flight snack), and then before landing, a choice of a hot breakfast, a continental breakfast, or a lighter fare. Now, you’re lucky if you get a bag of peanuts on a 4-hour flight! And if you do get any sort of warm food, one has to pay for it! I’m sure seasoned travelers of the past would be appalled to fork over $5 for a box of snacks, or something that has been mass-produced in a flight kitchen (well, they do complain about it now).