The Not So Golden Age of Travel
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- Photo: Corbis
If you type the words “Golden Age of Travel” into Google the images that fill your screen depict colorful, lavish scenes circa the 1950s of passengers laughing, enjoying caviar and socializing about the aircraft. The comments below the photos often describe the dismal state of travel today and how much we’ve lost since then. Comments like “Looks great, I’d fly with them today rather than be crammed in like sardines,” are common and mostly come from people who weren’t around during this so-called “golden age.”
Nostalgia Versus Reality
It’s easy to get caught up in the nostalgia, especially when you come across vintage airline ads like the American Airlines ad below describing the “spacious new Couch Lounge” and “stand-up bar.” Or Air France boasting about their in-flight meals, which include “Chapon sauté au Chambertin” and “champagne of course.”
But if we compare the reality of air travel from that time to how it is today, we begin to appreciate the changes, even if it means less legroom and average airline food.
Let’s talk safety for starters. Air travel today is the safest mode of transportation out there, with a death rate of 0.003 fatalities per 100 million passenger miles versus 0.06 per 100 million for trains and 0.61 per 100 million for automobiles. In the 1950s, air travel fatality rates were five times higher than they are today.
And after safety comes cost. Passengers complain about the high prices airlines charge for tickets nowadays, but they might see things differently if they knew the cost of an airline ticket during the 50s. In his article “Air Travel Today is a Damn Bargain,” Matt Novak takes a detailed look at the cost of flying in the 1950s.
“Since the American airline industry was deregulated in 1978, ticket prices have fallen by about 40%,”
says Novak, and scanning through the Trans World Airlines price chart below, quick math (accounting for inflation) reveals a flight at $310 USD from New York to Paris would cost over $2000 today, the price one might pay for a business class ticket for the same route.
- Photo: gizmodo.com
Not to mention the time it took to get from point A to point B. A flight from New York to Paris would have set you back 14 hours, nearly double the time it takes today! APEX Experience contributor Brett Snyder of The Cranky Flier would even argue that the golden age of travel is now. “Let’s stop holding airlines to an unrealistic vision from the past. Instead, look at an industry that carries millions of people around the world every day with an enviable safety record,” asserts Snyder. We couldn’t agree more.
Beyond Legroom
But at APEX, we know we don’t have to convince our members that we have come a long way since the “golden age of air travel.” The future is bright for economy class and sure, it’s not as glamorous as travelers from bygone eras may have imagined, but hopping on a flight today is safer, cheaper, faster and a lot more accessible to the masses (we won’t even get into the plethora of IFE options that are now available)! And besides, if you really want to experience what it was like to fly during the “golden age,” a $300 ticket at Air Hollywood will buy you the full experience.