I’m a big fan of the old “Hawaii Five-O” series. As a kid, Hawaii was some far-off place that might as well have been the moon.
So I wondered. . . how much would it have cost to fly to Hawaii back in the late 1960s? I know in one ep of the old series “The Fugitive,” they mention a plane ticket from New York to Athens costing just under $400. That’s about the same distance from New York to Honolulu. Anyone???
1968, New York Times. Pan Am. Round trip from NYC, 6 hotel nights, limos and sightseeing tours. $453.
Option 2. Six days in Oahu, 3 with unlimited mileage rent-a-car, airfare, hotel, some meals. $460.
Option 3. Four days at Waikiki, then 1 each at Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii. Hotels, sights, airfare, $549.
There were many more options.
Figured it’d more, actually… (The Inflation Calculator)
Cool. Thanks!
Lot’s of things don’t follow that basic rule–example:
Our 12" black and white tv in the Fall of 1948 cost about $350. Sixty years later, that’s the cost of a decent sized color set.
Using the Inflation Calculator mentioned above, $350 translates to $2064.68.
Don’t think of it as a “12” black and white tv". Think of it as a “state-of-the-art tv”.
The Google Books search through Life Magazines is great for this kind of thing:
I found one Pan Am ad from 1966 that lists the New York - Hawaii price as $418.
(You can also see the great ads from the 50’s where the flight to Hawaii from the West Coast took 12 hours.)
Yes, I would have loved to fly to Hawaii on a Stratocruiser I just love that name!
What a great site!! Of course, you have now ruined my weekend as I start to look through these issues and be fascinated with the artwork and ads and photography…but looking at the ads with the prices are great.