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I know this article is more about pilots, but recently watched The Parallax View (1974)[1] and there's a scene where Warren Beatty goes to an airport, walks on

• seabass-labrax 3y ago
  My father flew on commercial airliners somewhat frequently throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s in Europe, Africa and the Americas, and told me that travelling by air was just like catching a bus in South America. There's nothing I would like better than being able to get hold of a proper timetable for a given airport, but sadly this doesn't seem to be easy. Airlines book their slots months in advance, so its not as if they don't know when they'll be flying.
  • pc86 3y ago
    They book the flights out months in advance but are also constantly cancelling and adjusting things basically right up to the day of the flight.
    • dhosek 3y ago
      There are still regular schedules. Flight 1172 will have the same scheduled route and time one day after another. But with computers, the visibility into the schedule is both obscured (because they’ll show you only the flights with open seats) and less necessary (because they’ll show you only the flights with open seats). Crewing requirements mean that it’s important to have some stability in operating schedules. The stereotype of flight crews staying in a hotel at the far end of their flight is only the case for long-haul flights which comprise a minority of flights. Most crew will be on an out and back itinerary for their working days, sleeping in their own beds at the end of the day.
• vel0city 3y ago
  In the 90s there was a small airfield near my home in the US that Continental had some basic puddle jumper service at. There was a small office that could reasonably hold about 50 or so people that was between the parking lot and the tarmac. There was practically no security. One could go from buying the ticket in cash to boarding the plane in five minutes. Checked luggage was handed to the attendant at the bottom of the stairs. It was nice as it connected to a major international airport on the far side of town. Instead of an hour long drive each way it was a 15-minute drive, barely leaving the neighborhoods. Free parking at a generally safe part of town. Really easy to get in and out, no hassle. It operated until 9/11 happened. From what I understand pretty much all commercial operations there really died out, as it was also an air national guard and coast guard base.
  • hackernews1134 3y ago
    Gosh I forget the name of the airfield at the moment but by any chance was it near the Clearlake suburb of Houston (Hobby perhaps?) I used that airfield to get to Bush international several times back in the day. It was strange flying from one airfield to another in the same city to connect to my regularly scheduled flight. Thanks for the memories!
    • vel0city 3y ago
      Clear Lake, yes. Ellington Field. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellington_Field_Joint_Reserve_Base https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellington_Field_Joint_Reserve_... There was apparently another airfield in Clear Lake a loooong time ago next to NASA. http://airfields-freeman.com/TX/Airfields_TX_Houston_SE.htm#clearlake http://airfields-freeman.com/TX/Airfields_TX_Houston_SE.htm#...
• devindotcom 3y ago
  Incidentally an amazing movie about manufactured political violence that is still haunting and relevant today.
• dudul 3y ago
  I flew quite a lot in Europe in the 90s and it was definitely a completely different experience compared to nowadays. I do remember walking on the tarmac yes. I had my ticket before but could seat wherever. I could just show up 60 to 30min before take off. I was also - as a kid - always asked by the stewardess if i wanted to visit the cockpit. I remember telling that to a friend of mine who was 10 years younger and never flew before 9/11 and he thought I was making it up.
  • Swizec 3y ago
    > I do remember walking on the tarmac yes. I have walked on the tarmac plenty of times in the last 10 years either at smaller airports or at very large airports. At large airports it's because smaller flights don't get to park right up to the terminal so you have to board a little bus that takes you from the airplane to the terminal and vice-versa. At smaller airports it's because planes that small (100 or fewer passenger jets) don't really need the big walkways. > I could just show up 60 to 30min before take off I do that every time I fly domestic out of SFO. Super fast airport :)
    • dudul 3y ago
      Ok maybe I should have specified that I was flying from an international airport.
      • WalterBright 3y ago
        At Reykjavik you'll walk on the tarmac.
      • Swizec 3y ago
        Like I said: it happens at very large airports where not all connections fit around the terminal building, and at very small airports where the terminal itself is small. Many international airports do the tarmac thing for smaller regional-ish flights. In Europe those regional flights can easily be to a different country.
        • 3y ago
• ChuckMcM 3y ago
  I don't ever recall seeing people paying for a flight on-board but I did fly from Las Vegas to Reno (and back again later) to visit UNR and walked up to the Hughes Airwest counter, paid my $45 for a ticket, walked out to the tarmac and up the ramp and sat down on the plane. Maybe 15 minutes from parking to sitting down. The stewardess checked my ticked when I got on the plane to make sure I was on the right flight.
• r00fus 3y ago
  I remember that flying in the 90s was a hell of a lot smoother than after 911. I recall once (1998) getting to the airport 10m before departure time, running through the airport (with help from airline agents), and making the departure (a bit sweaty). This would be impossible today. I wonder how much of this was move to deregulate vs. increased consolidation in today's market.
  • matwood 3y ago
    Obviously once the door closes they won't reopen it anymore, but at smaller airports with TSA PreCheck it's possible to get there fairly last minute.
    • neeleshs 3y ago
      Even in 2015, in O'Hare Chicago, there were like 5-6 passengers, including me and family that were late due to a late connection and the flight doors had closed. The bridge was not retracted yet. No one was in the counter either. But we could see the pilots and all of us started yelling and waving at them. They got the door opened and we all got in. That was nice of them. Don't remember if it was United or Delta
      • selectodude 3y ago
        Just had that happen to me back in November, Delta at ORD. If they can get you on, they'll get you on.
      • anotheruser13 3y ago
        If it was Terminal 1, it would have been United; Old Terminal 3 would have been Delta. Source: lived in Chicago many years and flew a lot in and out of ORD.
    • lotsofpulp 3y ago
      I have gone from airport drop off to gate in less than 10min numerous times at Portland airport (PDX), especially if it’s United which has gates in the E terminal.
• munchler 3y ago
  There’s a scene at the end of the movie Fletch (1985) where Chevy Chase uses a plane ticket made out in another person’s name, and no one blinks an eye.
  • jimt1234 3y ago
    Can confirm. My first snowboard trip was to Mount Hood, Oregon, in the late 80s. I only went because something came up and my friend couldn't go, so he just gave me his plane ticket. The person at the ticket counter just asked me, "Are you Kevin Johnson?" I said "Yep", and walked onto the plane.
  • dhosek 3y ago
    In the late 1980s, I flew under my suitemate’s father’s name to get to college once (he had to change his travel date and sold me his ticket which was under his father’s name so his dad would get the frequent flyer miles).
  • anotheruser13 3y ago
    And Bruce Schneider has proven you can forge boarding passes
    • anotheruser13 3y ago
      Sorry, Schneier
    • cmurf 3y ago
      Boarding passes are going away. TSA is rolling out ID scanners that lookup the reservation without scanning a boarding pass.
      • pimlottc 3y ago
        They've stopped asking for boarding passes at security in most US airports, but you still need them at the gate come boarding time.
  • adamjb 3y ago
• assimpleaspossi 3y ago
  Since everyone is telling their stories: I flew all over the country working on the first CAT scanners in hospitals in the late 1970s. I would show up for work with my packed suitcase in the trunk of my car knowing I would be sent somewhere as soon as I walked in the door of work. I'd often travel to two or three cities every week. Once I was told which hospital I was going to, I would pull out my flight book--a printed thin manual that contained all the latest flights for all the major airports in the USA. I'd select which time suited me and either call the airline to book my flight or just drive out to the airport, walk up to the airline's ticketing counter, and pay by company credit card. Now I'm talking about a flight I intend to take within an hour or two of being told where I was going to go. Not tomorrow or next week or next month. I needed to go right now. And I wasn't paying extra to do it! Being the seasoned traveler, I knew not to bother to board the plane till it was ready to go. There were times when I'd arrive at the airport, parked my car, walk to the door of the airplane just as they were closing the door. (No security checking involved.) The "stews" could spot us frequent flyer business travelers a mile away. They knew we didn't ask for much and often preferred to just be left alone.
  • golergka 3y ago
    > Not tomorrow or next week or next month. I needed to go right now. And I wasn't paying extra to do it! How much these flights cost back then? How much is that inflation-adjusted? How much to they cost now?
• dhosek 3y ago
  My first time flying was 1982. Back then you dressed up to fly (suits and ties for the men, dresses for the women). Metal detectors had been in place for less than a decade (before that, “skyjackings,” where the plane was directed to go to Cuba, were a monthly if not more frequent occurrence). In-flight service included drinks in actual glasses and metal silverware for any meals (when I moved off-campus, I liberated some airline silverware to augment the dining-hall silverware I ate with in my apartment). Meeting arrivals at the airline gate was a common practice (as was saying goodbye at the gate).
  • bgnn 3y ago
    Turkish Airlines still serve with real glasses and metal cutlery.
• davidgay 3y ago
  Speaking as an asthmatic, the smoking bit was god awful. Forbidding smoking in planes was marvellous. In theory, IIRC, the smoking area was at the back. But in practice, the smoke and smell carried everywhere.
  • cmurf 3y ago
    It was as absurd as people wandering around a plane defecating on the tray tables. More ridiculous is how gullible classism has always been, continuously and eagerly falling for marketing hype.
• bjelkeman-again 3y ago
  When I was ten years old or so I was going to fly home from Spain to Sweden together with my younger sister. My mother worked for a travel company that also operated the aircraft. There were no seats available but we had school starting after the summer break in a few days. So it was considered important that we get home. They decided to put us in the cockpit in the DC-8, which had five seats, pilot, co-pilot, engineer (?) and two more seats. We got to partake in the takeoff and landing as observers, whilst using the flight attendant’s seats during the flight. I it was great as kid to experience that. That isn’t likely to happen today. (Cockpits probably don’t even have extra space.)