In college (I graduated in 1989), I used to fly People Express Airways back and forth between home and school. You didn’t even have to have a ticket, just a reservation, to board the plane; you could pay for the ticket after you were already in the air. Sometimes hilarity ensued, as when I called ahead to ask if I could pay for my ticket by check (I was, after all, a college student with no credit card). I was told I could, but when the flight attendant came to take payment after we were already in the air, I was informed that I needed to provide credit card information as a guarantee even if I paid by check.
Luckily I was rescued by the dapper gentleman next to me, who let me write him a check and paid for my ticket by credit card. I am not sure what they would have done with me otherwise - thrown me out the window, maybe?
The 1980s. Really a very different time in all sorts of ways.
I walked my wife to her gate, and there was a metal detector separating the waiting area right before the gate from the rest of the airport (terminal E). We were newlyweds and she was a bit of a wreck. And despite my having no ticket, the guy let me pass through the detector and wait right by the gate with her.
Going back to this: Why wouldn’t it fit? 4 gallon jugs laid down would be about 12"x6"x22-24". That would fit in current bins, if it’s at the 22" end. (Gallon jug dimensions vary a bit depending on the exact shape.) I’m sure bins were typically larger a few decades ago, because 24" used to be a standard carry-on size. And the width dimension is not a constraint of the bin, it’s to fit multiple bags.
Is the idea that these gallon jugs all were unsealed and would leak if put on their side?
I’m trying to remember how this changed. I remember that around the end of the 80s and maybe until '91-92 or so, it was fairly common for a roundtrip ticket to be cheaper than a one-way, so people who were traveling only one-way would have an unused “half” ticket. When I started college, I think people were still able to sell those. By the time I was done with college, “e-tickets” had taken over, and you couldn’t (or weren’t supposed to?) transfer your ticket to someone else anymore.
Before e-tickets, your paper ticket/flight coupon was what let you fly. You could just give it to somebody else. E-tickets meant that the airline had records and your boarding passes were more like proof that you had a ticket. Before e-tickets, the travel agent would write out the ticket/flight coupons, and I think had to call it in to the airline?
Note: e-tickets were not on your phone. But I think it’s when you started getting an itinerary code from the airline. I think you started having to show ID at check-in at that point.
What about unaccompanied children? When my young son flew by himself, not only was I able to get a pass to get through security so I could take him to the gate, the airline insisted that I do so.
That was within the past couple of years, BTW.
(Getting the pass was not hard at all. I just went to the agent, showed her my unaccompanied son and my ID, and she printed one out. Seems to be routine.)
I tried looking for info on this, and it was clear that at some airports in Canada this has been possible.
In the unaccompanied minor, or assistance for a disabled passenger situation, the key is you get a gate pass from the airline. Security won’t let anyone through without a pass, but if you need to help a passenger, then you may be able to get a pass from the passenger’s carrier.
Actually, I think you’re incorrect; traditionally, the bins, such as those on the Boeing 737-700, were sized to fit four 22" bags on their backs, so some passengers were forced to gate-check their bags. But recently, Boeing introduced Space Bins, sized to fit six 22" bags turned 90 degrees. I really doubt that earlier overhead bins were sized for 24" carry-on bags.
Paper tickets were a little before my time – I took my first flight when I was in college in 2003, and I’ve literally never used a paper ticket. But my understanding is that in those days airlines didn’t have the dynamic pricing they uses today, where flights on different days are different prices based on demand. IIRC, back when paper tickets were common the fare from say New York to Chicago was $X no matter which flight you took, and your paper ticket was proof you had paid the fare and could be used on any flight on that route provided there was space available (which there usually was in those days). Your boarding pass, on the other hand, was confirmation you had a seat on the 6pm flight to Chicago.
I flew from Melbourne to New York on Qantas with a colleague who, besides checked luggage, carried into the gate checks a regular carry-on bag, a case of Australian wine and a didgeridoo. I think we took separate flights out of Sydney and I don’t recall how much on-board checks may have been involved yet he got it all to New York.
Another of the many things I liked about Qantas was when the bar cart came around and you asked for, say a Jack and Coke, they had a regular bottle each of Jack and Coke to make the drink. For free. (coach class)
ETA: This was 1990 so many things may have changed. I’ve not returned to Australia since.
I was in Australia a few times back in the 1990s, and always flew Qantas. Complimentary alcohol was always available in international coach class back then. Including Jack and Coke. Not so for coach class on domestic flights in Australia, but prices were reasonable (like $2 for a beer).
I was surprised by the popularity of Jack and Coke in Australia, to the point where they had it ready-to-serve in cans in liquor stores’ coolers. I’m no whiskey purist, but the idea of mixing any whiskey and Coke just doesn’t appeal to me.
So I was flying out of Sydney once, on Qantas, on my way to Honolulu. They brought the bar cart around, and I asked for a Jack Daniels. “Would you like Coke with that sir?” I declined, saying that just ice was fine, thanks.
Hawaiian Airlines offers a complimentary adult beverage, including for coach. It’s a specific, premixed tropical drink, and it’s pretty weak, but it’s free. (I’ve only flown PDX to OGG - Maui, but I don’t think that flight is exceptional.)
When airlines started switching to etickets in the early 2000s, the ticket ceased to be a physical thing. For the past 20ish years your ticket has simply been a record in the airline’s computer system.
Yep - the travel agent might have given you a “ticket” printed on glossy card stock, but it was really just a receipt confirming that you’d paid for an e-ticket.
Mr. Legend used to travel for work extensively. When our kids were little, throughout the 90’s, we would drive him to the airport, park, go through security with him to the gate, kiss him goodbye when he boarded, and then watch the plane take off. What’s more, we did the same thing when we met him at the end of a trip. None of us had a ticket, but we just sauntered through security anyway.
In fact, in the late 90’s, the citizens of Albuquerque voted for bond issues that paid for a spectacular viewing deck to be built right between the two concourses of the Sunport. Once it was open, the kids and I used to head up there after he’d boarded and we’d watch planes take off and land until the littler one got restless. Sometimes we’d walk around and look at some of the airport’s art collection.
That ended abruptly on 9/11, and nowadays, the only mention I can find of the viewing deck is on a “hidden gems” travel site. All the taxpayers of Albuquerque just have to be content with the knowledge that we provided a lovely amenity to travelers who don’t generally have the time or inclination to hang around far from their gates, watching airplanes.
As for carryons, I’ve seen an incredible variety of bizarre and impractical containers. As long as they can pretty much fit in the space allowed, the flight attendants don’t bat an eye.
The last paper ticket I used was in the early 2000s. I was flying on American through O’Hare in the winter (I know, big mistake but it was a long story). During the layover my flight onwards was canceled. The American gate agent found me an alternate flight on United, but had to issue me a paper ticket (handwritten, I might add) for reasons I now forget (she told me to be very careful not to lose the ticket since it could not be replaced) and sent me over to the United terminal.
Or course that flight got canceled too, I was sent back to American and put on a flight which got stuck on the tarmac for two hours before the pilots timed out and dumped us back at the terminal. Never did get to my destination that trip…
Yes, there were people selling unused tickets - the airlines did not really check names. The airlines loved the fallout from 9-11; nobody could resell or transfer tickets, because the ticket name had to match ID. (Indeed from time to time they are fussy about exact match)
I once bought a large poster at the Met and flew back from New York (Ad for Canaletto exhibit…). The tube was about 2-1/2 or 3 feet and 4 or 5 inches diameter. It ddn’t fit overhead, the flight attendant put it in the coat closet at the front of the section. IIRC the only rule for carry-on, loosely enforced, it had to fit overhead or under the seat without blocking the seat foot area…
I shut down one Calgary airport secition in the 90’s. I’d been on a ski trip and bought a crystal sun-catcher for the wife of a friend who’d looked after my place. Apparently crystal is opaque in a x-ray. The security said it looked like a ninja throwing star (illegal in Canada) and shut down the line, locked the doors, called the cops. I offered to show them, they said no - at that point neither I nor they (security guards) could touch the bag, only police. We waited for the RCMP, they looked at it and let me go.
I assume that sharp crystal would be too much like a weapon today.
I remember the Toronto Airport in the 1970’s suggesting “say goodbye to grandma at hme”. A lot of large families would accompany relatives to the airport (especially, Toronto had a large Italian population who would have relatives visiting). You could go right up to where they took your boarding pass/paper ticket at the loading gate. They old circular Terminal 1(?) was built before 1970 and the arrival of really big jets. The seating area at each gate then barely accomodated the load of passengers, let alone family spectators. IIRC somewhere around the early 70’s they started putting security gates at the entrance to the gate ring and not allowing those not boarding. (Watch the original movie Airport which features an old lady who cons her way onto flights for free. “Sorry, I left ny boarding pass on the plane and came out to go to the washroom”. Works for sweet old ladies who would never lie…)