My parents took the whole family to Disneyland when I was five. I do not remember the flight at all (only an hour or so hop from the Bay Area). When I was maybe ten, my dad took me to the California Newspaper Publlshers Convention in Los Angeles. On a whim I guess? I don’t remember that flight either. I was the only child in the hotel. I think that’s it, below the age of fifteen, when I went to Europe with my parents, and a year later flew across the country solo to go to school. After that, since I spent two or three years on the east coast, I flew regularly. It wasn’t so bad then, in the 1970’s. It was only later that I grew to passionately hate airplanes.
I’d say there are about 80 of our clan in KY right now, and only 10 or so of us have flown (including me) and 7 of those were in the service. The older relatives have traveled by bus for church-organized trips post retirement, but if you had to fly to get somewhere, they wouldn’t go.
When I lived in Chicago, everyone drove/rode to visit. It’s an hour flight that cost less than a Greyhound ticket, and the meandering bus route is 10 hours. In the 30 years I lived there, only my sisters ever flew up.
Sure it would. Me and GF traveled in May; there was an empty row behind and she stretched out and napped. Happens all the time.
Never. My family was not rich.
I stand corrected then. Every flight I’ve been on over the last 10 years was packed to the gills.
I flew two legs of a flight today. Both planes were packed to the max. Denver airport was a zoo, as was the Spokane airport.
Which reminds me, the first flight I took without my parents was to Boston to check out the college I had been admitted to. I went with a friend who had also gotten in. New York to Boston was pretty easy.
I was ten (1980). Cheap package holidays abroad had arrived in the UK, so we flew to Majorca, and the following year to what was then still Yugoslavia. After that, I did a couple of school ski trips to France and Italy, so flying about once a year became routine.
I had my first flight in a plane, a joy ride (it was a prize) in a small four seater, when I was ten years old. The pilot was a friend’s Dad. A few months later our family went on our first proper international holiday, and took a plane for that too.
Because I have only ever lived in an island nation (originally New Zealand, and now Australia), the only rapid way to get anywhere is by plane. My problem is, I don’t go anywhere.
I’m originally from Toronto, but when I was a child, my Dad was seconded to his company’s Calgary office. So we flew between Calgary and Toronto in summers for vacations. Not sure how many times. We eventually returned to Toronto.
When I was 9, we took a sightseeing flight over Toronto.
When I was 11, I flew back to Toronto from Ottawa.
When I was 17, I flew from Toronto to Athens, and back, via Shannon, Ireland.
There were many subsequent flights (heck, I’ve got hundreds of thousands of Air Canada miles), but those are all the ones I took before I was 18.
When we moved to Calgary, and back to Toronto, my Dad preferred the train. Aircraft were fine for getting to Toronto quickly, but if we were moving, the train was his preferred mode of travel. We had the best accomodations on the train—the drawing room, also known nowadays as Via’s “Triple Bedroom,” in the Park Car. Never mind the expense; his company was paying.
Many years later, I would travel long distance by train, because Dad taught me well. I’ve taken “The Canadian” from Toronto to Edmonton, in a roomette; and “The Ocean” from Montreal to Halifax, again in a roomette.
You’re right—roomettes are quite comfortable, with pretty much everything you need in a tiny space: space to put your luggage, a toilet, a sink, a fold down bed (on Manor cars), or a pull-out one (on Chateau cars), and a wide, roomy seat. A shower is at the end of the train car, and the dining car is two cars down. Perfect for the single traveller!
Enough of that hijack. Back to discussing flying as a child.
For over two thirds of my childhood I lived across the world from my grandparents, so as you might guess I flew fairly often. I think I must have flowed from Israel to the U.S. and back 6 or 7 times between the ages of 6 and 18.
It’s pretty rare in my experience. Even in 2020 the flights I took were mostly full.
Last week there was no one in the middle seat and it felt like first class.
About nine, on a Vickers Vanguard commercial flight from London to Glasgow, and back the same day on a Trident.
That was the only one for another five years or so.
My cousin’s husband had a share in a Cessna light aircraft syndicate, and their children flew from an early age and just regarded it as ‘stuff people do’.
I flew regularly as a babe in arms. I believe my wealthy grandparents paid to fly the family up so they could see their grandchild or something. Anyway, I’ve flown since I was too young to remember it.
I also used to fly as an unaccompanied minor most years when I was a school child. When passover coincided with spring break, my parents flew me down to spend the week with my cousin. Once, when the eastern flight attendants were on strike, my aunt got them to scrape up a crew for one plane by dumping me on them, or so I’m told. At any rate, I got home on time, despite the strike.
I liked flying. I loved looking out the window, and seeing the world drop away. I loved “looking at clouds from both sides”. I still do. Flying is more crowded than it used to be, but there’s also no stale smoke. So I’m going to call it a tie. The security is a much worse hassle, though.
Not very much, but the times I did were memorable.
I was born in Jugoslavia, and when I was a baby, my parents flew me from Belgrade to Montenegro (I’m assuming by JAT-Jugoslav Airlines, I’m guessing to the Tivat airport) to visit my paternal grandparents.
Then when I was 1, my family emigrated to Canada. I flew Belgrade to Toronto on a JAT flight. I’ve always wondered if it was on a classic Boeing 707 or if it would already have been on one of their DC-10s, which were their go-to plane to fly into YYZ in the 1980s (a relative of mine was a flight attendant with them and she use her flights to visit us before the wars there started in 1991 and sanctions prevented JAT from flying to Canada).
The first flight I remember was when I was 7 and we went to Cuba during the Christmas holidays. Air Canada flight, I’m pretty sure it was a Boeing 767. I found the experience novel and exciting; it started a passion for aircraft that lasted well into my 20s, though it waned in my 30s. As I recall, during the flight I saw a circular rainbow from the window (rainbows are actually circles, but on ground level you never see more than half, because the other half would be seen behind the horizon).
Then when I was 12, my father had a business trip in London. My parents made it a two-week vacation; we flew to London and then took a vessel across the Channel and went to Paris. We flew to London and then back to Toronto from Paris with Air Canada Boeing 747 -100s/-200s. Great memories.
The next flight was when I was 18. When I graduated from High School, my parents took me for another two-week vacation to see Italy. We flew there with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines via Amsterdam, there on a Boeing 747-400, a very comfortable flight, and then to Venice with a Fokker-100, a much smaller aircraft; that flight was plagued by turbulence. Great plane spotting in Amsterdam, and in Venice, I had a special treat: there was a NATO E-3 Sentry (military-configured AWACS Boeing 707). While in Italy, I also saw a Boeng 707 of the Italian Air Force in flight, my last confirmed sighting of this aircraft. On the way back, we flew from Rome to Amsterdam by Boeing 737, and then back to Toronto again by 747-400.
After this flight, the euphoria of flying wore off, but I’m still glad to do it on the rare occasion when I can.
I’m pretty sure most of my childhood flights were on the Boeing 727.
My only really bad experience flying was on a 747, and i still don’t like that model.
Neither was mine, when I was little. We lived in an apartment in Morningside Heights, and didn’t have a car. My parents’ bills were pretty much rent, electric, and charge accounts at some of the stores we shopped-- bakery, pharmacy, grocery, etc., which were never much. The biggest bill was probably my preschool tuition, which I found out years later my grandparents paid to make sure I’d go to a Jewish preschool.
But in the 1970s, domestic flights in coach just weren’t as expensive as they are now.
That sounds backwards. Deregulation began in 1978 and additional bits in the 80s brought down the prices. Once you adjust for inflation, prices are lower now.
Based on the degree of my mother’s bitching about them.
My parents had a lot more money when they were older, but a lot more expenses as well.
I could be wrong, or it could be where they were going, their willingness to take non-direct flights, who knows? Maybe flying out of New York tended to be cheaper than flying out of Indianapolis, for some reason.
Flying out of NYC is generally cheaper. 3 major airports and a lot of flights so a lot of competition. If you could catch what was basically business flight, even less.