https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/06/business/last-boeing-747/index.html


For those of us that remember the era of jet travel being a luxury for which you dressed appropriately…the 747 was the Cadillac of the sky, she will be sorely missed.

 

Flew on quite a few. That and 777 … smooth as silk.

 

A step up from a C-130, I’ll give you that.

 

So I wouldn’t be me without a long winded story, now would I?

My first time flying was on a 747, LAX to Honolulu. It was probably1977 and I remember it vividly. I had to dress up since we were going on a plane so I had khaki shorts, a clip-on tie and a little sport jacket. I remember the burnt orange floral seat covers, the double isles I could run up and down for hours, the massive rear galley where the stewardesses in pretty Hawaiian patterned dresses gave me candy and soda. I visited the cockpit during flight and got to talk to the pilots and see all the instruments (so many knobs and switches). The best was the spiral stairs to the upstairs lounge where I sat with my father as he smoked and read his book at the low cocktail tables, I felt like a VIP. The bartender gave me extra cherries in my 7-up. This is how I remember flying as a child, Ifeel saddened that kids don’t get to experience that kind of joy and privilege when flying anymore.

The last domestic US route for the 747 was from Chicago to Maui on United, they stopped about 7 years ago. I flew it back in 2007 and it was as I remembered (without the burnt orange upholstery and the flight attendants weren’t wearing floral dresses anymore). But those double isles…with a back condition it was glorious as I could get up and walk laps around the plane during flight, or just stand in the galley for a while and look out the window.

The article linked above says Lufthansa still flies 25 747’s, who knows for how long. Perhaps I’ll see if they fly into an east coast terminal and we’ll take a flight to Berlin just to give the plane a kiss goodbye.

 

But what watches were they wearing?

 

First time for me... 1972, nonstop from DC to LAX.
Eight year old me received a pin from the pilot and a tie tack for my clip on tie, both my brother and me were dressed to the nines ~ as per mom & dad's dress code for travel, after touring the cockpit and getting to sit in the copilot's seat while flying over the Grand Canyon no less.
Everything about the flight west and then back east was pure magic.
Entire plane smelled of cologne and ciggie smoke. Childhood.
Meal westward was grilled sirloin, whipped potatoes, green beans with butter, a roll and too many Cokes.
Eastbound, I sweet talked the stewardess into four hot fudge sundaes in lieu of a proper meal... which landed me in the bathroom vomiting them up in turbulence somewhere over Oklahoma. Bummer.
My brother, five years older than I, had me convinced that as a consolation to my gluttony at least my stomach contents shot straight out of the 747 and down onto some unsuspecting Okie.

 

Yup! I have identified that smell (no joke) Aramis (the cologne my dad wore through the 70’s), Dior Eau Sauvage and Brut (most prominent notes in those are very period of lime, leather and patchouli). Mix any of those with a Camel unfiltered and a dram of bourbon and you will be transported to 1975…no shit.

 

Only once for me in December 2006 on a United flight from ATL to SFO. Wasn't even supposed to happen that way. My brother and I were flying home on leave for Christmas from MHT to DFW to SFO to RNO. Weather at DFW made them fly us instead to ATL and then we took the 747 all the way to SFO and then continued on to RNO. Beautiful aircraft and a good trip.

 

First flew a 747 in 1981 when I flew to Perth, Western Australia for a nine month job......Houston, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Auckland, Sydney, Perth .... a long trip. Flew many times from Melbourne to either Los Angeles or San Francisco between 1996 to 2001. United had its business class on the upper deck, plenty of room to stretch out, maybe only 24 seats on the upper deck. The 747 was a great machine.

 

I miss the seat trays and stewardess hotties

 

Yes but the Herc will outlive us all.

 

Boston Frankfurt or Munich has some 747 flights on some days

 

I think eight years ago, I was flying back from Basel to NYC on Lufthansa and was connecting via FRA.
Almost missed the connection… but what a surprise when I was told that I was upgraded from Business to First… on a 747!!! Only time I flew on this type , AND in the hump of this beautiful plane. Couldn’t get any better than that.

 

As a foreign student in the U.S. many years ago, the first leg of my flight back home was on a 747 from SFO to Munich or Frankfurt with Lufthansa, or to Amsterdam with KLM. My last flight on a 747 was from SFO to HKG on United back in 2013, and I didn't realize that until today.

 

What I wouldn't give to have experienced something like this.

 

My first flight with the Böing 747 was from NY to Zürch in 1976.... great experience, after flying with the "TUBE" 707 before. I remember asking a A- or F-seat at check-in for more comfort in the smaller 707.

 

I remember flying coach (now economy) non-stop from JFK to Tokyo-Narita on a Northwest Orient 747 many years ago. The only part of that memory that remains vivid is that it was the longest flight of my life at around 15 hours..

 

Never got to sit in the upper deck on one of these. Always was a dream when I as a boy boarding the plane and peering up the stairs.

 

i was lucky to fly upper deck once. It was very special - as if you were in a private jet.

 

Rubbing it in
Jokes aside, wonder if we’ll ever see a double decker passenger plan again.