Air travel these days ain’t what it used to be. The seats are cramped, legroom is scarce, the meals aren’t free, the bathrooms are tiny, and every inch is packed with passengers. Can you tell I just survived a long-haul flight?
That sardine-can experience got me daydreaming about the golden age of flying — the 1950s to the 1970s — when airlines succeeded at creating a genuinely luxurious experience. Think of real meals, lounges, cocktail bars, spacious seats, and limitless legroom — and we’ve got the photos to prove it.
1. “More room than you’d find on a modern train.”
2. “Pan Am 747SP First Class dining – 1970s”
3. “Was the flying in the 70s really like this, or is it just good old PR?”
4. “You have to love orange shag carpet on a plane.”
5. “This 1970s first class section looks like it’s straight out of Star Trek.”
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6. “It’s funny that there’s more room in this lounge on a 1970s airplane than there is at the waiting room by the gate now.”
7. “These people flying in the 1970s didn’t even know how good they had it.”
8. “Imagine a time they served fresh shellfish on a flight.”
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9. “The good old days of flying”
10. “Flying in Style (1966)”
11. “Flying 1st class in the 60s”
12. “Keep the pretzels coming, lady.”
13. Passengers aboard a TriStar jetliner. Each passenger in this photo has approximately seven square feet of space. (1967)
14. “If this photo were taken today, there would be 120 people sitting in this space.”
15. “Crazy to think there were actually bars with bartenders on some 1970s flights.”
16. “Flights in the 1970s sometimes had actual dining tables you were served at.”
17. “The wood banisters on this 1970s plane remind me of my parent’s house.”
18. “Casually walking down the spiral staircase to the downstairs lounge. Flying in the 70s was something else.”
19. “Sir, would you like another?”
20. “Is that a widescreen TV or just a big photo of the Grand Canyon?”
21. “These people wouldn’t last an hour on a Spirit Airlines flight.”
22. “Leather seats on a plane are luxurious on their own.”
23. “Remember what we’ve lost.”
24. “Back when they had actual chefs on flights.”
25. “Gotta save room for dessert.”
26. “Wait, a charcuterie board?”
27. “This Pan Am dining area is nicer than any restaurants I eat at.”
28. “Wait, they had t.v.’s on airplanes back then?”
29. Passengers relaxing on the sleeper seats on the new Comet 4 from New York to London in 1958.
