1957 TWA Flight Schedule and Pricing

It shows you how much a bargain air travel has become. The round-trip tourist fare from NYC to London is shown as $522. In 2013 dollars that would be over $4200!!

 

My dad would have had 10 years seniority with TWA when that schedule was printed. I grew up as a pass kid and that's the only way I knew how to get around. His 1947 hire date got me to the top of the standby list every time.

 

By comparison, here's a thread I posted a few years ago about the 1960 Eastern timetable which I bought, which includes the very first plane flight I ever took (a DC-8 from San Juan to Idlewild in NYC).

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/aviatorchat-com/348519-airline-travel-50-years-ago.html

 

I find this DOC super cool

 

I was a Royal Medallion on TWA when they went under (sold out). Was sorry to see them go. Their hub in St Louis suffered from only one IFR runway at a time.

 

I believe it's HIGHER than that now unrestricted.

 

Yep just checked...5,456. (First class 11,356!)

 

and ironically, STL built a second runway shortly after the AA "merger" and their traffic went down 70%.

 

But even the "excursion" fare, the cheapest one listed, still comes to $3500 in current dollars. At just about any time today, you can do much better than that with today's discount airfares.

 

True, but you get what you pay for. Airline travel today bears no relationship to the travel experience of yesteryear.