Question for old timers

On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:22:39 -0700, "Mr. Travel"
wrote:

Rog' wrote:

"Mr. DBG" wrote:

What was airport security like in, say, the mid 1970s?
My first flight was in 1991.
I've heard that there was practically NO security in the mid
1960s; that a person could even carry a firearm on board;
they usually just turned them over to an FA on boarding
and had them handed back at the end of the flight.

No ID checks. You could give or sell a ticket to anyone.

OF course, prices were regulated

And flying was not for the low of income unless you were flying
on business. Back around 1960 most students planning a summer in
Europe took a ship because airfare was so expensive. I recall
that Icelandic Air had the best fares because they weren't a
member of the trans-Atlantic regulatory body. They charged $300
US round trip, in prop planes that landed at Gander, Reykjavik,
Shannon, and finally (I think it was) Amsterdam. Adjusted for the
value of the dollar that would be $2112 in today's money.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:37:58 -0700, Hatunen wrote:

On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:22:39 -0700, "Mr. Travel"
wrote:

Rog' wrote:

"Mr. DBG" wrote:

What was airport security like in, say, the mid 1970s?
My first flight was in 1991.
I've heard that there was practically NO security in the mid
1960s; that a person could even carry a firearm on board;
they usually just turned them over to an FA on boarding
and had them handed back at the end of the flight.

No ID checks. You could give or sell a ticket to anyone.

OF course, prices were regulated

And flying was not for the low of income unless you were flying
on business. Back around 1960 most students planning a summer in
Europe took a ship because airfare was so expensive. I recall
that Icelandic Air had the best fares because they weren't a
member of the trans-Atlantic regulatory body. They charged $300
US round trip, in prop planes that landed at Gander, Reykjavik,
Shannon, and finally (I think it was) Amsterdam. Adjusted for the
value of the dollar that would be $2112 in today's money.

Where do you get an non-compounded inflation rate of almost 15% per
year for 48 years from?

(John Kulp) wrote in
:

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:37:58 -0700, Hatunen wrote:

On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:22:39 -0700, "Mr. Travel"
wrote:

Rog' wrote:

"Mr. DBG" wrote:

What was airport security like in, say, the mid 1970s?
My first flight was in 1991.
I've heard that there was practically NO security in the mid
1960s; that a person could even carry a firearm on board;
they usually just turned them over to an FA on boarding
and had them handed back at the end of the flight.

No ID checks. You could give or sell a ticket to anyone.

OF course, prices were regulated

And flying was not for the low of income unless you were flying
on business. Back around 1960 most students planning a summer in
Europe took a ship because airfare was so expensive. I recall
that Icelandic Air had the best fares because they weren't a
member of the trans-Atlantic regulatory body. They charged $300
US round trip, in prop planes that landed at Gander, Reykjavik,
Shannon, and finally (I think it was) Amsterdam. Adjusted for the
value of the dollar that would be $2112 in today's money.

Where do you get an non-compounded inflation rate of almost 15% per
year for 48 years from?


The Federal Reserve inflation calculator shows that $300 in 1960 is the
equivalent of $2,185.14 in 2008.

The Federal Reserve calculator can be found at:
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)

In article ,
AES wrote:


Not travelled much on the trains in the UK then i take it :-)

Nope, fortunately I haven't had to. Maybe some day your social system
will catch up to those in Germany and other parts of Europe. :-)

Occurred to me just after I posted this that it might come across as a
bit snippy toward the UK -- not intended to be so, or at least I'm
probably no more critical of UK public services and mores than is the
OP.

And, I might note that my wife, and then my wife and granddaughter, took
Amtrak from San Francisco to Truckee/Lake Tahoe twice last winter
(except you can't go from SF, you have to drive over into the wilds of
Oakland somewhere; and when you reach Truckee you're still 40 minutes
from the Lake).

Pleasant and fun trips both times --- but over a distance that you can
drive in a little over 3 hours, Amtrak has a 5 or 6 hour published
schedule. and managed to arrive several hours later than that both
times.

Hoping that someday US public services will also catch up to those in
Europe :-)

Hatunen wrote in
:

And flying was not for the low of income unless you were flying
on business. Back around 1960 most students planning a summer in
Europe took a ship because airfare was so expensive. I recall
that Icelandic Air had the best fares because they weren't a
member of the trans-Atlantic regulatory body. They charged $300
US round trip, in prop planes that landed at Gander, Reykjavik,
Shannon, and finally (I think it was) Amsterdam. Adjusted for the
value of the dollar that would be $2112 in today's money.

I flew Icelandic in 1969 just before they switched from the turbo-prop
Candair 440 aircraft to stretch DC8s. The routing was JFK to Keflavik to
Luxembourg.

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:19:03 GMT, Marty Shapiro
wrote:

(John Kulp) wrote in
:

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:37:58 -0700, Hatunen wrote:

On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:22:39 -0700, "Mr. Travel"
wrote:

Rog' wrote:

"Mr. DBG" wrote:

What was airport security like in, say, the mid 1970s?
My first flight was in 1991.
I've heard that there was practically NO security in the mid
1960s; that a person could even carry a firearm on board;
they usually just turned them over to an FA on boarding
and had them handed back at the end of the flight.

No ID checks. You could give or sell a ticket to anyone.

OF course, prices were regulated

And flying was not for the low of income unless you were flying
on business. Back around 1960 most students planning a summer in
Europe took a ship because airfare was so expensive. I recall
that Icelandic Air had the best fares because they weren't a
member of the trans-Atlantic regulatory body. They charged $300
US round trip, in prop planes that landed at Gander, Reykjavik,
Shannon, and finally (I think it was) Amsterdam. Adjusted for the
value of the dollar that would be $2112 in today's money.

Where do you get an non-compounded inflation rate of almost 15% per
year for 48 years from?


The Federal Reserve inflation calculator shows that $300 in 1960 is the
equivalent of $2,185.14 in 2008.

The Federal Reserve calculator can be found at:
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/

Just for the record, I used http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:46:33 -0700, Hatunen
wrote:

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:19:03 GMT, Marty Shapiro
wrote:

(John Kulp) wrote in
:

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:37:58 -0700, Hatunen wrote:

On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:22:39 -0700, "Mr. Travel"
wrote:

Rog' wrote:

"Mr. DBG" wrote:

What was airport security like in, say, the mid 1970s?
My first flight was in 1991.
I've heard that there was practically NO security in the mid
1960s; that a person could even carry a firearm on board;
they usually just turned them over to an FA on boarding
and had them handed back at the end of the flight.

No ID checks. You could give or sell a ticket to anyone.

OF course, prices were regulated

And flying was not for the low of income unless you were flying
on business. Back around 1960 most students planning a summer in
Europe took a ship because airfare was so expensive. I recall
that Icelandic Air had the best fares because they weren't a
member of the trans-Atlantic regulatory body. They charged $300
US round trip, in prop planes that landed at Gander, Reykjavik,
Shannon, and finally (I think it was) Amsterdam. Adjusted for the
value of the dollar that would be $2112 in today's money.

Where do you get an non-compounded inflation rate of almost 15% per
year for 48 years from?


The Federal Reserve inflation calculator shows that $300 in 1960 is the
equivalent of $2,185.14 in 2008.

The Federal Reserve calculator can be found at:
http://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/data/us/calc/

Just for the record, I used http://www.westegg.com/inflation/

It also represents a long term mean inflation rate, compounded,
of about 4.3%.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

"Mr. DBG" wrote in message
. ..

"Rog'" wrote in message
. ..
"Mr. DBG" wrote:
What was airport security like in, say, the mid 1970s?
My first flight was in 1991.
I've heard that there was practically NO security in the mid
1960s; that a person could even carry a firearm on board;
they usually just turned them over to an FA on boarding
and had them handed back at the end of the flight.

No ID checks. You could give or sell a ticket to anyone.
As long as it had the correct origin+destination, gate agents
assumed it was your ticket.

Yep, even I remember those days. Our local paper would
have huge numbers of ads for people selling airline tickets.
These new rules blew that practice right out of the water!
I think that several years before it became law, most of
the airlines lied to customers, saying it was an FAA regulation
to verify I.D.

And yeah, gates did not close
until 10 minutes B4 departure. Before deregulation, flights
were more web-like than hub+spoke, which made it easier
to get to smaller airports.




Even better, before Frank Lorenzo took over Continental and ran it through
bankruptcy to get rid of the unions in 1982, all tickets were fully
refundable.

John Kulp wrote:

On Thu, 24 Apr 2008 09:37:58 -0700, Hatunen wrote:


On Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:22:39 -0700, "Mr. Travel"
wrote:


Rog' wrote:


"Mr. DBG" wrote:


What was airport security like in, say, the mid 1970s?
My first flight was in 1991.
I've heard that there was practically NO security in the mid
1960s; that a person could even carry a firearm on board;
they usually just turned them over to an FA on boarding
and had them handed back at the end of the flight.


No ID checks. You could give or sell a ticket to anyone.

OF course, prices were regulated

And flying was not for the low of income unless you were flying
on business. Back around 1960 most students planning a summer in
Europe took a ship because airfare was so expensive. I recall
that Icelandic Air had the best fares because they weren't a
member of the trans-Atlantic regulatory body. They charged $300
US round trip, in prop planes that landed at Gander, Reykjavik,
Shannon, and finally (I think it was) Amsterdam. Adjusted for the
value of the dollar that would be $2112 in today's money.


Where do you get an non-compounded inflation rate of almost 15% per
year for 48 years from?

Uh, why would inflation not be at a compounded rate?

How much was gas in 1960?

On Apr 23, 12:46 pm, Larry in AZ
wrote:
Waiving the right to remain silent, John Levine said:

In article ,
Mr. DBG wrote:
What was airport security like in, say, the mid 1970s?

There was nothing at all until the Palestinian hijackings in 1970 and
DB Cooper in 1971. The FAA mandated searches starting in 1973, which
were mostly just magnetometers.

I've heard that there was practically NO security in the mid
1960s; that a person could even carry a firearm on board;
they usually just turned them over to an FA on boarding and had them
handed back at the end of the flight.

Yeah. Ah, for the good old days.

When you could arrive at the airport 20 minutes before a flight and make it
on board with time to spare, even at a busy airport.

It may still be possible in some places. I had to take a short
domestic flight in NZ from Wellington to Picton about 5 years back. I
had just missed the ferry so a friend told me to rush by taxi to the
airport and he called the small local airline to say I was coming for
the flight leaving in about 20 min. or so, and they said they would
try to wait for me (he was a good customer of theirs). Wellington
airport is not huge but is international and modern. When I got there
I found this airline did not have a check-in desk and was told to go
straight to the gate. I suppose I had to pass through some security
though I don't remember it. I got to the gate with less than 5 minutes
to go before take-off. There was no-one there. I rang a bell. A guy
came through the door from the tarmac. He asked my name, then ducked
out and yelled at the pilot of the +-12 seater to wait a minute. I
handed over the fare in cash, NZ$45 I think, and went through the door
to the plane maybe 10 meters away. As soon as I climbed the steps they
closed the door and were taxiing before I sat down, and took off on
time. At the other end the airport was little more than a shed in a
field. As soon as I got off the ground staff called out my name, then
put me on a mini-bus which immediately took me to the pub where my pal
was waiting. Hard to beat service like that.