Tag: Retro Travel

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Mile High Club or Not, You Could Have Valentine's Dinner on the Concorde

February 8, 2012 at 1:25 PM | by | Comments (0)

The Concorde may technically be dead, but airline romance isn’t, if British Airways’ Valentine’s deal is anything to go by.

A couple of years ago, the UK airline did a neat Valentine’s Day party kinda thing on flights between London and New York; this year, the celebration is on a more personal scale, though still rather spectacular: dinner for two on the Concorde.

The bad news? You’ll have to pay for it. The good? It’s for charity! Just bid for it in a blind email auction, and you’ll win dinner for two on board BA’s flagship Concorde G-BOAC at Manchester Airport, in the Runway Visitor Park.

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Seven of Our Favorite Defunct Airlines of Yesteryear

February 7, 2012 at 2:17 PM | by | Comments (3)

It sure seems like a number of world airlines have been closing up shop recently. Last week, we saw two European carriers cease operations and call it quits. Barcelona-based, Spanair, and the Hungarian flag carrier, Malev, both abruptly stopped flying, stranding passengers all over the continent. Of course, these latest casualties are not the only airlines to make their final approaches.

Let's take a trip down memory lane and reminisce of those airlines we never forget and, secretly, wish we could still fly. These brands never had an iPhone app, some barely had a website, but they will always play a role in the golden age of air travel.

Some of favorite defunct airlines, in no particular order:

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Check Out JetBlue's Very First Website, from 2001...

February 6, 2012 at 6:19 PM | by | Comments (0)

Okay so JetBlue just finally launched their very first iPhone app, but at the same time, they also pushed out a new mobile of their website, and a new website all around. To prove how far they've come, JetBlue shared with us the above—their first functioning website, from 2001. Wow. Throwback. Now compare it to 2012, below...

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Pan Am Episode 12: Smugglers, Spies and a Surprise Prince

January 23, 2012 at 12:31 PM | by | Comments (0)


Laura asks for a loan from Amanda

Read our past Pan Am episode recaps here.

Let us first say that this is the episode where the girls have looked their best so far. Kate, Colette and Maggie all attended a fancy foreign party and thus donned killer cocktail dresses, while Laura and Amanda showed off in figure-hugging sweater sets. When will Pan Am inspire a retail collaboration like Mad Men did with Banana Republic? Oh, probably never, but a girl can dream.

Anywho—most of the gang was off to Rome this week, but Bridget (pilot Dean's old/new flame) was conspicuously absent and Ted stayed home to begin playing house with his new fiance, the bi-curious Amanda (played by Ashley Greene). Filling the gap was the newish character Captain Broyles (aka "Sky God"), who we learned last episode moonlights as a smuggler of goods, a fact which comes heavier into play this episode.

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The Way We Once Traveled: Postmarks from the Middle of the Ocean

January 20, 2012 at 11:45 AM | by | Comment (1)

We'll fully admit that we save our ticket stubs even sometimes our bag tags. Of course travelers of decades ago were no different; in fact, they were worse. Sometimes we dig up vintage gems that deserve to be shared. All week, we'll look at a few lost pieces of ephemera that continue to inspire.

Check out that postmark on the above postcard from 1924. It seems that this little greeting, from folks sailing onboard the SS President Grant of Admiral Oriental Line between Seattle and "The Orient," made it all the way from somewhere off the coast of Japan to a teensy-weensy town in Northwest Ohio. Serious, Google Map Tontongany, Ohio and count how many roads it has on your hands. Then think about it back in the 1920s; it boggles the mind.

The point of all this is really to draw your attention to the words of the traveler who mailed this card, as their situation onboard says all you need to know about the pace of getting from Point A to Point B in the days before airplanes and taxis and turbojet ferries. Here ya go:

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The Way We Once Traveled: Helicopter Transfers to the 1964 World's Fair

January 19, 2012 at 2:40 PM | by | Comments (0)

We'll fully admit that we save our ticket stubs even sometimes our bag tags. Of course travelers of decades ago were no different; in fact, they were worse. Sometimes we dig up vintage gems that deserve to be shared. All week, we'll look at a few lost pieces of ephemera that continue to inspire.

The 1960s were a great time to hop a helicopter ride in New York. These were the days when buying a First Class ticket on Pan Am or TWA meant the inclusion of a chopper transfer to the airport, and helicopters weren't yet clogging the skyways above the rivers, causing the accidents and concerns that exist today. In 1964 specifically, families keen on spending a day at the 1964-1965 World's Fair could take a scenic ride on New York Airways' helicopters from Manhattan out to the fair at Corona Park in Queens.

Landing was the fun part, actually; the choppers set down atop the first completed structure for the fair, the Port Authority Exhibit Building, which counted the helipad, a restaurant ("Top of the Fair"), cocktail bar and 360-film feature theater as attractions. Coincidentally, the 360-degree film shown was also shot by helicopter, as the cameras dangled and captured the beauty and geography of the New York region.

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The Way We Once Traveled: 'Orchestral Selections' on the Queen Elizabeth

January 18, 2012 at 9:50 AM | by | Comments (0)

We'll fully admit that we save our ticket stubs even sometimes our bag tags. Of course travelers of decades ago were no different; in fact, they were worse. Sometimes we dig up vintage gems that deserve to be shared. All week, we'll look at a few lost pieces of ephemera that continue to inspire.

Water Aerobics. Mixology. A lecture on wildlife photography. Hairiest Chest Contest. These are just a few standard daily activities you'll likely find listed on the schedule of a modern cruise ship. However, it was back when passenger ships were called "liners" that schedules focused on the social, rather than the active and educational, advantages of the journey.

It's within this schedule for the old Cunard liner RMS Queen Elizabeth—her third day of a crossing from New York to Cherbourg/Southampton—that we see this for sure. Where iPad classes would be listed on a 2011 cruise shop activity list, the 1949 version favors watching horse racing or listening to the news broadcast.

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Retro Travel: What The Concorde Gave Passengers in 1995

January 17, 2012 at 1:00 PM | by | Comments (0)

Do you remember the glory days of The Bullet aka The Concorde? Neither do we. Well, we did fly it once back in 2000 from EWR-LHR but we have very little memory of the ride. Sigh, it's true. Everything good is wasted on the young.

But thanks to the mentally ill hoarding meticulous salvaging of our high-flying parents, we now can see what the Concorde gave out to its passengers in fall of 1995--Leather diary planners for 1996.

We've put some snapshots of the billfold/diary planner below for those of you who still get nostalgic about flying The Concorde. And while we don't have any use for a calendar from 16 years ago, you betcha we stole that silver Concorde pencil!

Got any of your own Retro Travel pieces to share with us? Please do!

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The Way We Once Traveled: American Airlines' Astrojet

January 16, 2012 at 1:49 PM | by | Comments (0)

We'll fully admit that we save our ticket stubs even sometimes our bag tags. Of course travelers of decades ago were no different; in fact, they were worse. Sometimes we dig up vintage gems that deserve to be shared. All week, we'll look at a few lost pieces of ephemera that continue to inspire.

In the 1960s, when the World's Fair was taking over New York City, American Airlines had nice little pamphlets printed to attempt to entice people who didn't live in New York into taking their planes to visit the event. What planes, exactly? Oh, just the newest Boeing dressed up in a shiny silver paintjob complete with red lightning bolt, a look called the Astrojet.

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Pan Am Episode 11: Back in the USSR, with Light Espionage

January 16, 2012 at 10:38 AM | by | Comments (0)


Broyles crashes Dean's Moscow pep talk

Read our past Pan Am episode recaps here.

This episode picks up exactly where we left off last week, with pilot Dean and newly returned stewardess/former MI6 spy Bridget hopping into bed with each other. Bridget still loves Dean and wants to pick up where things left off (with her as his fiance), but Dean has moved on to Colette and would rather just bed Bridget one last time. Maybe she's so irresistible again because he just found out she's a spy, and spies are hot? That's just our guess.

Regardless, Dean and Bridget part that morning in London for good (here's hoping), as Dean reveals again how hurt he's been over all the lies: "So everything I didn't understand was because you were a spy and I was in the dark?"

Ring ring ring! Dean picks up the hotel room phone to discover he's been summoned back to New York for a meeting with Pan Am's chief Juan Trippe. About what? Oh well, after a nice computer-generated panorama of the Pan Am Worldport at JFK, we find out it's all concerning PAA being the first western airline to return to the Soviet Union, and Trippe wants Dean in the captain's seat—the "face of the Jet Age" and whatnot. Wait, we thought that was Laura on the cover of LIFE? Anyways, the plane leaves ASAP.

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Pan Am Episode 10: London, Loathing and a Lie Detector

January 9, 2012 at 12:03 PM | by | Comments (0)


We highly doubt a stewardess, in their immanculate Pan Am uniform, would sit on the floor of a plane to drink, while surrounded by perfectly fine First Class seats

Read our past Pan Am episode recaps here.

Wow. It's been a full month since the last episode of Pan Am and, to tell you the truth, we blanked on where things left off. When a show is in danger of being cancelled, it's not the wisest to postpone new episodes for four weeks because—just as if the show was already cancelled—watchers begin the process of forgetting about it.

Luckily Pan Am is back for more episodes until the network figures out what to do with it, and last night continued the romantic drama and espionage intrigue we've come to expect. With a side of retro air travel.

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Architecture is Reason Enough to Hit Palm Springs

December 20, 2011 at 4:49 PM | by | Comments (0)

Tis the season to head for sunnier, warmer climes. For many this means the Caribbean and Mexico while for others, they're keeping it closer to home in Palm Springs, CA. Since we know many who'll head to the desert on Virgin America's new route to Palm Springs, we're thinking it's time to let you in on a few of our own personal favorite PS secrets.

When you're not guzzling all-you-can-drink champagne in Palm Springs, the thing to do is take in the sights. Just be totally sober before hopping behind the wheel, of course. There's no shortage of vistas in this desert valley surrounded by mountains and blue skies, and we confess that our favorite thing to do in Palm Springs is actually just leisurely cruise around.

Driving here (any time other than Coachella) is a breeze. The streets are wide and well maintenanced, traffic is extremely rare, and oftentimes the buildings that line that road are as photo-worthy as the natural scenery. There's just something about that midcentury modern look, and luckily it's something in which Palm Springs specializes.

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