Personally, I would say the last "good" flight I had was on Pan Am in the 80's. I'd also say (though most would not) that it was better to have smoking on flights under the theory that it kept everybody calm, just like beekeepers use smoke to keep bees from swarming.
I agree today’s travel is like being packed into a sardine can. I took my first flight last year in 50 years from Bismarck to DC. I was looking forward to it. What a disappointment. I was stuck in the middle of three seats where my arms literally touched the guy on both sides. The leg room was pathetic. The meals were fast food junk they simply warmed over.
My last flight decades ago had reclining seats, good side room and excellent meals with little head phones to listen to music or a movie being played. None of that on last year crappy Airbus 320.
The “Golden Age” of air travel continues - in corporate jets.
Lower prices were the result. The real cause is in the story as a throw away - de-regulation.
Regulated airlines couldn’t compete on price, so they competed on service. The last airline to try to compete on service was American “more room throughout coach”. It didn’t work.
All of the legacy US carriers, and most of the non-legacy, either went through bankruptcy or were bought out in the post regulation era.
Bring in the Third World, become the Third World.
My unusual flying experience is that it wasn’t until my 6th plane/jet flight, that I got to experience a landing, but I did get to experience the years of meals and all the free drinks you could consume, sweet, great looking stewardesses, the airport so glamorous that it was just exciting to be there.
2024 was the last time I was on a plane - 6 hour flight. My strategy is to expect to have the worst experience possible - crying babies, flight-long insipid conversations louder than dinner table volume, flight long reclined seat in my lap, child or adult kicking my seat, piss all over the lav, arguments, fist fights, disgusting fat bodies next to me and a snack and drink I finish before the attendant moves the cart. When I was younger, I would board loaded so I could sleep, but now I just sit there and take it. It’s no different than being in jail or Walmart or at a sporting event. I’d rather take an asswhippin than get on a plane again. The worst of humanity in an aluminum sausage casing.
My life has not always been easy. I take things as they come. I’m a relatively small person and there’s enough room.
Perhaps airlines could have a section with more space and an upgrade fee in a choose your seat webpage. A lot of Americans are quite large.
The main thing that bothers me is how long it takes to get off the plane.
Perhaps airlines should make checking a bag free and limit carry on.
I took a flight in 2024 and the food was generally awful. I flew the same airline in 2025 and the food was better.
Hence the rise of companies like NetJets, Flexjet, Wheels Up, FlyExclusive, JetOptions, Jet Linx, Airshare, etc.
They are the only way to fly if you can afford it.
I flew a few times a week in the 70s for my job. I could write a book about some of those adventures.
There is an YouTube video about flying in the 1960s. Men in ties and Females in dresses...Dad told us that he in the 1970s wore pants and polo shirts when he flew to his private school...
You can get the better service and more room, easily, by simply paying for First Class.
If you are willing to pay as much as people used to do (in inflation adjusted dollars), you can get the same service, often better.
When the airlines were heavily price controlled and regulated, before 1978, coach class subsidized the premium seats. Now the premium (First Class) seats pay their own way, and constant dollar prices tend to be close to what they were pre-1978.
Buy a first class ticket.
“I’d also say (though most would not) that it was better to have smoking on flights..”
I remember being the only paasenger on a Northwest 727 deadheading from Madison, WI to O’hare. The stewardesses were having a hen party and I asked if it would be okay if I smoked my pipe. They said sure...we love the aroma.
Also remember being able to store long guns in the overhead.
That was in the 70’s when America was still America.
While flying in the “Golden Age” of air travel looks nice, I’d pass. Have a feeling that travel took a lot longer, the planes were a lot less safe, and you felt the weather bumps and bad air a lot more.
Sir Frederick Alfred Laker (6 August 1922 – 9 February 2006) was an English airline entrepreneur, best known for founding Laker Airways in 1966, which went bankrupt in 1982. Known as Freddie Laker, he was one of the first airline owners to adopt the "low cost / no-frills" airline business model that has since proven to be successful worldwide when employed by companies such as Ryanair, Southwest Airlines, easyJet, Norwegian Air, and AirAsia.Regards,- Wikipedia
You can still get that kind of service but you’ll fly private.