A funhouse mirror of the now, a picture of what was then

December 28, 2022 5:00 PM

Come Fly With Me: The Story of Pan Am [59m] shows what air travel was from its founding with a Miami-Havana mail route taking on passengers to creme de la creme air travel that finally collapsed after airline deregulation and the race toward the bottom. Relive the most glamorous decades of flying!
posted by hippybear (11 comments total)

My father who's in his late 70's still talks about Pan Am. It's amazing the long tail it had on him, someone who was a pilot himself in the Navy, and who was someone who lived a nomadic life for a while in the 70's. I've sent this to him as I know he'll enjoy it.
posted by Carillon at 6:18 PM on December 28, 2022 [1 favorite]

My dad was a frequent international Pan Am flier (for business) in the 60s/70s/80s. Last week was the anniversary of his death and when I'm feeling a little less fragile, I'm going to watch this and think of him. Thanks for posting.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 6:21 PM on December 28, 2022 [7 favorites]

I flew on Pan Am as a child, before and I think again after deregulation. I don't remember it being different than other airplane flights I had at that age, but I might just not have noticed anything different, either. (I was positive about flying as a kid because in those days you could go and visit the pilots during the flight, which I loved. One time a pilot set me on his lap and let me move the controls, which in hindsight might not have represented the height of aviation safety on his part.)

The scenes in the film are neat to see; flying in the decades before I was born was definitely different than it became later.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:34 PM on December 28, 2022 [2 favorites]

The last vestiges of Pan Am died a quiet death just this past June, when CSX completed the purchase of Pan Am Railways. In 1998 Guilford Rail, a small freight railway operator that with networks in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, bought the Pan Am name and logo, and began Pan Am Railways. The background and history of Guilford and Pan Am, could be a good topic for its own FPP, but I'm too lazy :)
posted by dchase at 10:27 AM on December 29, 2022 [4 favorites]

Thanks for this, I'll probably watch it at the weekend. I was talking to a friend about Pan Am last week, as part of a conversation which started with air hostess as a career for girls in the 1950s and went on from there. We looked at some articles about the history of air hostessing which were interesting - How air travel became a pioneering site for women’s activism (Australia), uniform history, The Story of Pan Am’s First Black Stewardesses. Apologies if there is overlap between some of these and the documentary.
posted by paduasoy at 11:24 AM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

I flew Pan Am a couple of times as a child, and I remembered it being fancy in the way any international flight was fancy. We got coloring books and small game kits, as well as little pins. It had a lot more significance for my dad, who came up in his career along with the airline. When Pan Am sold its Pacific routes to United, my family's loyalty went along with it.

For folks that bemoan the decline of glamor in air travel these days, I'd point out that the price of Pan Am "economy" tickets in 1950s were $173 or $3000 in today's dollars if you want the wide leg room and the beverage cart and seatmates who are more likely to be wearing tailored clothing rather than sweatpants then you can still have that. You just have to pay for a first class ticket. Sure you have to mix with the proles on check in but for certain international flights, first class gets you access to private check in lounges so you can still immerse yourself in a luxury bubble. That's not even getting into the rarefied world of private jet travel.

The plushness hasn't gone away, it just found ways to maintain exclusivity while deregulation opened the gates to more people. Personally I prefer the cheaper airfare. If I wanted to spoil myself on a vacation spending those dollars on a nicer hotel room feels like a better use of money, but admit that the notion of having a little ice cream trolley rolling down the aisle midflight is charming AF. Just, you know, not $3000 worth of charming.
posted by bl1nk at 1:48 PM on December 29, 2022 [2 favorites]

I don't know if they fly international or not, but I have taken many first class flights on Alaska Airlines for under $600 round trip and they have served me a hot meal on a tray with actual silverware regularly on these flights. I don't know what Alaska is doing that others aren't to achieve this kind of service, but they've earned my loyalty for the flights I can take with them.
posted by hippybear at 2:36 PM on December 29, 2022

All airlines wind up bankrupt eventually. It'd sure be nice to saddle oil consumers like airlines and fuel suppliers with some of the shale oil cleanup costs..

"Alberta oil industry is on the hook for a cleanup tab that is between $40 to $80 billion. And guess what … the industry hasn’t saved a dime."
posted by jeffburdges at 2:36 PM on December 29, 2022 [1 favorite]

Is shale oil used at all in making jet fuel? Honest question, I have no idea.
posted by hippybear at 2:38 PM on December 29, 2022

Yes, jet fuel has volatility between diesel and gasoline. In fact, oil industry PR makes big claims about the synthetic crude their upgraders extract from shale oil.
posted by jeffburdges at 3:53 PM on December 29, 2022

My grandfather had the best story (I think) about the airline industry before deregulation. Under regulation, airlines couldn’t cancel a flight because it was under-booked. The schedule was the schedule.

So, one time, he was the only passenger on a red-eye between LA and somewhere on the east coast. He said the champagne was on the house and his glass was never empty.
posted by hwyengr at 5:51 PM on December 29, 2022