A chance to reminisce - who remembers the "old days" of Travel?

[juddles]

Hi all, I start this just through a sheer personal feeling, but I thought it may evoke tender memories in those on the forum that have been in the game for a few years.....

In my life time air travel has truly changed. I am not really old, yet certainly not young, and the changes in my experience have been monumental.

When I was growing up, air travel was a thing of the rich, not the masses. Almost noone flew domestically - we all traveled on buses. And the concept of middle-income people having yearly trips overseas (like Bali) was simply inconceivable. but that is the new reality.

I learnt to travel when in my teenage years I had to navigate between Sth America and Australia solo - and there was no internet, mobile phones, perpetual and secure comms. You literally had to write physical letters that would take months to bridge the pacific abyss.

When you bought a ticket you got a wad of paper travel vouchers - again, no internet or e ticket wonders. You respected the novelty of being able to cross borders.

In hindsight it was much harder to do, but at the same time it reflected the seriousness of what you were doing - travelling across the globe and crossing borders. Things have been made so simple now that I suspect that few even think about these things - they take the globe to be their personal playground within which they have some sort of "right" to play in. And I see this reflected in expectations in all modern travel. But I also see the modern views as flawed and ridiculous. The world is not a playground for those afluente enough to cruise it - it has problems.

Maybe some can remember what it was like just a decade or two ago?

 

[Archipelago]

Great post @juddles
Totally my era too, for the start of my younger travelling life.

Recently I was reminiscing with a similar aged friend. We were trying to work out how we actually found and booked accommodation (nineties to early 2000's)
I remember WOTIF was the first OTA for hotels I used in the mid 2000's. Cannot for the life of me remember what I did before that?

Wads of paper airline tickets - yeah for sure. Mid nineties when Ansett did the unlimited trips for 30,000 points - and I would regularly take a trip around Oz in J with a stack of tickets after spending hours on a call with the Ansett booking agent to work out the itinerary

1996 marked my year of moving overseas to work - SE Asia to start - and I had no concept of status, lounges and seat selection down the back. Oh, how I have learned since then.

Some anecdotes will come to mind for sure, but just arrived to Bangkok from Myanmar and brain is totally fried. COVID-19 has been a stress for us up here in this region. Boss is freaking out that I'll be flagged or quarantined before I have to fly back to work in a few days

 

[opusman]

We were trying to work out how we actually found and booked accommodation (nineties to early 2000's)
I remember WOTIF was the first OTA for hotels I used in the mid 2000's. Cannot for the life of me remember what I did before that?

It was either through a travel agent, or not booked at all. I spent 3 weeks in the mid 80's driving around France with my father and we never had a single booking - just used to rock up in a town and find a hotel. None of this "checking the reviews first" rubbish!

 

[daft009]

i guess the definition of "old days" will be different for everyone.

I grew up in the 80s in India. We did a few domestic flights as my dad did quite a bit of flying. I was only 5-6yo back then and remember vividly the hostess taking me to the coughpit to sit with the pilot & the FO & getting a lolly or two for a few minutes.

I remember the paper tickets with stubs.
I remember my first international trip & also my first on a 747 jumbo, was on SQ from SIN to SYD when we migrated here in the early 90s... can never forget that hump. my mum didn't know the drinks & the kids colouring books they gave out on board were all free so she refused them all she only knew the meal was free.

My first solo backpacking trip to Europe in 2004 after uni, involved walking around with maps, staying in hostels (booked online from webcafes at www.hostelworld.com). getting lost in the streets and finding awesome clubs/bars/food etc. going to a webcafe once a week and emailing my parents that all was fine and I was alive.

its all just too easy these days.... sometimes i wonder if thats a positive or a negative...

 

[zenyattamondatta]

 

[RooFlyer]

I am the good old days.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Things have been made so simple now that I suspect that few even think about these things - they take the globe to be their personal playground within which they have some sort of "right" to play in.

Sure - but the passenger can only do that because they are enabled by the system... aircraft manufacturers want to sell more planes so they make them more efficient. Seat manufacturers want to sell more seats so they make them smaller. Airlines want to make more money so they buy fuel efficient planes with smaller seats. And they sell fares accordingly

I think too the definition of 'the masses' changes with all of the above. Going from propeller aircraft (the DC7/Connie for example) to jets was a huge increase in capacity. So the definition of 'the masses' widened. Then came the 747, and you went from 120 seats to 350. Again, the definition of 'the masses' widened. Each time planes got bigger fares came down and travel was more accessible. Airlines have been advertising holidays by jet for the last 50+ years. So the concept itself isn't new, just the price has come down.

 

[Antoallison]

My travelling started in 1969. We plotted a route across Europe, then just made sure we arrived at the train station of the next destination before the local tourist office closed at 5pm.

Remember tourist offices ? There was one in even the smallest town.
Staff ready and happy to help with booking your accomodation that night, they also usually were able to book your next accomodation in a different area. Walls lined with bookcases filled with paper brochures, maps of the city centre. Verbal recommendations for cafes, tourist attractions.

You bought a local phone card and used it once a week to call home and assure your mother that you had not been abducted into the white slave trade.

You organised travellers cheques at the bank before you left Australia.

Qantas had a glossy brochure for accomodation bookings, listed as “Expensive, Mid-Range and Economical”. I booked Mid Range in Athens and Delhi. They were problems with both.

 

[maccaisking]

My first plane trip was when I was 14 years old, on a family holiday to Cairns. I was convinced on take off that the seat was going to dislodge and slide to the back of the plane due to the immense acceleration and unnatural angle we were on. It was quite amazing to me that the plane didn’t fall apart! We were excited to go on a holiday involving flying, and had no idea when such a luxury would be available again (my 2nd flight was 5 years later to Sydney, so it was a while).

We took holidays every couple of years before that, but always driving. i remember an RACV accomodation guide (not sure what it was called) which was used to pick out hotels and apartments.

Comparing that to MstrMac (7) and MissMac (5), who both clocked up more flights before they were one than I did before I was 20, have flown PE or J to six countries - some of them several times - I cant imagine what the future will be like for their children.

 

[RooFlyer]

I remember when there was still smoking on airplanes. I also remember a domestic business trip once, travelling with some company management. The guy leading the trip booked us in smoking - not because any of us smoked, but because it was 'one extra degree of freedom'

My company - Western Mining Corp - in the 1980s had an Ansett travel person in their Melbourne corporate office, as corporately we did so much flying. Even back then the secretaries knew the value of 'Golden Wings' and lounge access. My routes were Perth-Melbourne, then Darwin-Melbourne, then Adelaide - Alice Springs - Darwin and Adelaide-Melbourne.

And then I was working in Canada when Ansett went down the plug-hole and lost 'em all.

 

[VPS]

My first trip to Europe in 1982 cost about $2000 one way but that did include a week on a cargo boat from Perth to Singapore. I'm amazed at how I managed to pay for that considering my wages and be away for nearly two years and only work for a few months.

I too remember the tourist offices who were so helpful

 

[Austman]

Business Class, generally, in the 80s and 90s seemed to me to be more "classy" than it is now. It didn't have the flat beds but it had comfortable seats and a lot better service.

I remember on some models of the 747 upper deck, there were just 12 or 16 seats. (the -200 and the -SP?)

I remember being escorted to lounges and through security and other formalities.

I remember getting gifts during each flight.

 

[opusman]

I remember getting prawns and smoked salmon in economy on QF to Singapore!

 

[luxury-lizard]

Here's one for the ages - I remember travelling in Europe in the 70's with my boyfriend (now husband of 45 years) and when checking into hotels I had to wait outside as most refused to allow unmarried couples to share a room.

i also recall with horror the days of smoking sections in airplanes - so maybe the service was better in Y in those days but OMG the smoke !!

 

[juddles]

I remember when there was still smoking on airplanes. ....

In the 80's Lan Chile used to have a free 10 pack of smokes on every single meal tray! And each trip from Chile to Australia meant a refueling stop on Easter Island, an overnight stay in Tahiti, then yet another refueling stop in either NZ/Fiji/Noumea etc - Glorious days

 

[Austman]

I travelled a fair bit on Scandinavian Airlines around Europe in the 90s.

Even in economy class, for a "dinner" flight from eg Stockholm to London, the cabin service used to start with this type of announcement:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we will begin today's service with coughtails. At the same time we ask you to choose a drink to accompany your meal and something to go with the coffee service after the meal". (they did offer tea as well of course)

So they'd actually ask each pax to order three drinks at once! lol. Typically for me it was:

1. Gin and tonic. Delivered as a miniature gin bottle, a small can of tonic and a glass with ice, lemon and a swizzle stick.
2. Wine. Delivered as a 1/4 bottle with a separate glass.
3. Cognac. Delivered as a miniature cognac bottle with a separate glass.

Try asking for that in the era of RSA!

 

[juddles]

Does anyone remember the literally "piped" music or sound for movies? I recall on Panam you had to hire the stethoscope-like things for $2 USD - which my parents would not pay for so as kids we learnt to raise the armrest and hold your ear against the pipe outlet so you could listen for free

 

[daft009]

Does anyone remember the literally "piped" music or sound for movies? I recall on Panam you had to hire the stethoscope-like things for $2 USD - which my parents would not pay for so as kids we learnt to raise the armrest and hold your ear against the pipe outlet so you could listen for free

I remember that from 1994/95 on air India international. Singapore to Delhi

 

[RooFlyer]

Does anyone remember the literally "piped" music or sound for movies? I recall on Panam you had to hire the stethoscope-like things for $2 USD - which my parents would not pay for so as kids we learnt to raise the armrest and hold your ear against the pipe outlet so you could listen for free

Yes, to go with the movie projected onto the bulkhead!

 

[esseeeayeenn]

In the 80's Lan Chile used to have a free 10 pack of smokes on every single meal tray! And each trip from Chile to Australia meant a refueling stop on Easter Island, an overnight stay in Tahiti, then yet another refueling stop in either NZ/Fiji/Noumea etc - Glorious days

Apart from the cigarettes that would have been a dream trip.
I've been trying to factor that into a round the world trip and now LATAM are leaving OW it is going to be hideously expensive.