Posted on 02/23/2015 6:25:07 PM PST by Drango
IF you think the air travel experience generally stinks now, consider what it was like before smoking was banned on domestic flights 25 years ago.
Tracy Sear, a flight attendant with US Airways, was looking over some Facebook posts from colleagues recalling those bad old days when a third or more of passengers on any flight puffed away, and cabins were foul with smoke. When I spoke with her the other day, she read one of those posts to me: “Suitcases, uniforms, hair — all stunk from cigarette smoke. And it’s astounding that we didn’t have more cabin fires.”
~snip
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I started traveling heavily for business in the mid ‘70’s. I’ll admit, I smoked. But, back then, flying was an absolute pleasure - it was much like what co-workers (envious all) envisioned when they bitched about me flying so much.
The airlines served real food, even in Coach. Now, you’re lucky to get a meal like Coach (ca. 1975) in First Class. As far as “silverware,” now you just get trashy plastic ware. Coach? Bring a sandwich - soon, they will probably charge you for allowing you to eat your store bought sandwich.
In the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, drinks were free and there was a selection. Now, there is very little selection and the selection they have is the bottom of the barrel stuff. Free? Hah!! $7 or $8 for a little bottle of turpentine.
Legroom - grow shorter legs. Width of seats? Lose 100 lbs.
Flying used to be enjoyable, now it’s torture.
...and they were right. They were saints compared to the non “Smoker mafia”.
Touchdown.
“That’s an interesting statement. It is my theory that much of the crazy behavior, some of which approaches psychotic behavior on airline flights, is because of oxygen deprivation, just because the airlines desire for squeezing the last penny out of every flight.”
Even under the best of circumstances, the oxygen levels in an airliner cabin are a good deal less than what one experiences at sea-level. I don’t know the exact numbers, but I recall that at cruise altitudes, the cabin can be at 7 or 8,000 ft. Naturally, as you postulate, to save fuel, raising the cabin altitude to 10,000 ft would help. The other thing is that whenever one of the pilot is off the flight deck (like in the head), the other pilot has to put on his oxygen mask. So their masks are available to them to take care of any adverse affects attributable to higher than normal cabin pressurization altitude. The other thing is that the plane can only operate with a certain hull pressure differential, so the higher it flies, the higher the cabin must go along with it so that the delta p is maintained at a safe level.
“Those bad old days when there were stewardesses and you weren’t just cattle. “
And the stewardesses were not old enough to be your mother!
My wife used to take JAT Airlines to Yugoslavia back in the day. She says the smoking section was on one side of the plane, and the non-smoking on the other.
Even smokers hate second hand smoke. Waiting at a train station, smokers always, ALWAYS move up wind to smoke.
“Compressed air is free on a jetliner.”
You do not understand physics.
I miss those days too. Women would wear furs for warmth and fashion. What the hell happened?
Thank you.
“You can take allergy shots for that”.
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Love it!
I used to work for an airline in early ‘60s and later flew many business trips to both coasts and the Northern States from the DFW area in the ‘70-80s... back when smoking was allowed. ...No non-smoking passengers were bitching and complaining back then. And, most stewardesses (they were female and not gay guys then) and pilots all smoked.
Proud and relatively comfortable.
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Obviously, your comfort mattered more than that of so many of the other passengers.
Smoking used to serve people as a calming agent when flying, before all of the expensive drugs began to be used to achieve the same effect.
Flying used to be enjoyable, now it’s torture.
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I enjoyed the flying and amenities during the years you described, and even remember having metal knives and forks to eat good meals in coach.
Retired 2001 and took about 3 trips a year to Las Vegas, UNTIL they put the TSA into the mix. Haven’t flown since.
Even smokers hate second hand smoke.
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The whole thing about second hand smoke is a myth and BS!
Second hand smoke has never been PROVEN to be detrimental or contribute to major health problems. There are no tars or other possibly harmful elements in the smoke that have been proven through science.
I’ve known several friends over many years who successfully quit smoking. At work, they would go with us smokers to our designated smoking areas just so they could smell the smoke.
Back in the old days when it took 8 hours to fly from Honolulu to San Francisco at 8 thousand feet,
“Lenny says, 12 hours and 16 minutes”.
Society has rejected the presumption that 70% of the other passengers and I should suffer rather than the addicts. The smoker's rude behavior and arrogance is a major reason that they lost the smoking wars.
It was AWESOME. People were more relaxed and friendly, seats were bigger, stewardesses were more attractive. Of course a lot of that has to do with deregulation. But still, America was a better place before the anti-smoking dingbats took over.
Back in 1960, my dad had his first heart problems. he went to the doctor for a checkup and asked if the cigarettes might be the problem with his short breath.
The Doctor then said...”Hell, cigarettes won’t hurt you!” The Dr. then offered my dad a cigarette and they both smoked and talked together in the office.
The official records for our family deaths list “Acute Indigestion” as the cause. When I had my first chest pains I was treated for acute indigestion. Finally they gave me a scan and found a plugged heart artery. I dodged the bullet on that.
Wonder if THAT is really what killed my ancestors instead of indigestion.
**The whole thing about second hand smoke is a myth and BS!***
I’ve often wondered why people don’t swallow second hand spit from a tobacco and snuff chewer!
Bad enough breathing their smoke laden lung exhaust.
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