h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"Back in the 1980s, air travel was glamorous"

Not bloody likely matey boy That was the days of Freddy Laker and Peoplexpress. The first time I visited the US was in 1985 and we flew from Heathrow (or was it Gatwick?) to Newark on Peoplexpress. It was worse than being on a number 87 bus to Dagenham. At least that journey only lasts about 20 minutes. I think you'd need to go back another 20 years to find the age of the jet set and glamorous air travel.

Sadly, as the 80s were ending, I was just entering my teens! Even so, my memories of flying to Spain and the US with my parents then are pretty good. I'm sure someone even older than you will be along shortly to explain that the real Golden Age was in the days of the Wright Brothers

Probably

I guess it was the early nineties when I first flew and it seemed exciting at the time. I wonder if it has more to do with your age or the novelty of the experience than with how thoughtful the airline actually are.

Still, I'm thinking that whenever I next make a transatlantic flight I'll try and make it with Air Canada I have rather better memories of the in-flight entertainment. They managed to fit in two films instead of one and a bunch of rubbish telly like most operators. Also the radio stations and food were better.

Possibly. But at the start of the in-flight safety talk, we were actually told that if we were reading a magazine we should 'stop reading, close the magazine and place it upon your lap for the duration of the talk'. I was so taken aback, I did.

Y'know I'd have expected such a school-marmish approach to be a hallmark of the olden days rather than modern times. If you hadn't obeyed you'd probably have been sent to stand in the corner and "think about what you've done."

And that was pretty much the attitude of the smoking incident. It's not even an isolated incident:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7270047.stm

My point is that they're becoming more 'bus driver' than 'hostess' in attitude. Perhaps, as Gosho says, it wasn't perfect even in the 80s, but there has certainly been a decline in the years I've been flying. I'm sure that there are two sides to the story, but if a stewardess is quoted as saying 'we have told you off once' I'm fairly sure that Miss is laying down the law...

Funny how that guy went to the press on the same day as my Post article came out, eh? Talk about stealing my thunder.

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"My point is that they're becoming more 'bus driver' than 'hostess' in attitude."

When they stop standing at the plane door, smiling and greeting passengers and start slouching in a seat, grunting and looking annoyed we'll know the transformation is complete.

I guess somebody doesn't like the word a******e, even though the profanity filter passes it.