OT: Hurricanes Lounge XLVI: Really, It's All About Beer and Bojangles

[MinJaBen]

Back in the late 80s, they sometimes did make short trips with big planes. For instance, when I was interviewing for jobs, I had to fly from Cleveland to Detroit and it was in a huge plane. I think it was a 767, or maybe the larger variant of the 757. It was about 25% full. I suspect that they wanted the plane in Detroit thus why they used it because it was only about an hour flight.

That was about 4 years before Home Alone 2 was filmed.

I agree with you though. Flying in the 80s and 90s was different than flying now. They definitely pack people in as the seats are less roomy and I rarely encounter a flight that isn't full.

They've also kept increasing fees for things to the point where we feel they are "normal" now.

The difference is night and day from the 80’s until now. Can you imagine People’s Expression existing now with paying for your ticket on the plane while in mid flight?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Amen to that about Atlanta. It probably doesn't help my opinion of Atlanta that I had to sleep in the airport once.

I also slept in Atlanta Hartsfield once. Missed a connecting flight so I found a gate that was wonderfully, inexplicably completely empty so I laid down on a row of seats and tucked in for the night.

When I woke up, I was surrounded by a HUGE crowd of people. Like I literally woke up staring at someone’s knees in their suit pants. A lot of them were flight attendants and pilots in their dress outfits, plus a bunch of corporate looking people. There were, I shit you not, balloon arches over the gate that were put up while I was sleeping. I sat up and must have had the most “what the ever loving ****” look on my face. Everyone starts clapping and I follow their gaze out the window towards the tarmac and again, I shit you not, there was a plane arriving under a fire truck water hose salute.

Turns out it was Southwest Airlines’ first day operating at that airport. They set up a whole-ass corporate event involving their CEO arriving on the first flight and making a speech at the gate, and I slept through the whole damn event setup. By the grace of the airline gods I didn’t end up a meme or something.

Years in the making: SWA lands in Atlanta

I remember reading about Southwest Airlines years ago when I entered the aviation industry. They didn’t fly down south (at least not the southeastern US) so no one really cared to notice them…

airlineguys.com

 

[Oogie Boogie]

People talking about having their Airports be Charlotte, Raleigh, or anywhere else and I'm stuck with Greensboro

 

[Unsustainable]