The Good Old Days

[ramprat 8]

Greetings,

 

I have a good friend that used to work for PSA in Sacramento, California back in the seventy's. Yesterday he found this fare schedule from 1975. I hope it uploads so it can be read. It shows fares like Sacramento to Los Angeles for $24.30, and San Francisco to Sacramento for $11.45.

 

Best regards,

 

Bill in Colorado

 

Ooops, it didn't upload. Here is another attempt.

[Boeing452654 1]

Yah thats how it was back in the 70's very cheap air fares.

[JRBarrett 3,038]

Brings back many memories. I lived in San Diego in that era. PSA was very much the "hometown airline". It had a very unique "fun" culture. The only thing comparable today would be Southwest.

 

It's a shame PSA was completely dissolved when it merged with U.S. Air in 1988.

 

Of course the $24.95 fare in 1975 would be $110 in today's dollars, but that's still cheap!

[Matthew Kane 1,343]

Awesome find mate....

 

You can still get airfares for $35 in New Zealand on most domestic routes. That is NZ Dollars so works out to $28.55 US Dollars. That is about the same price and distances today compared to 1975.

I flew Wellington to Queenstown for $45 this year and Wellington to Auckland for $35. Both Air New Zealand and Jetstar offer these rates.

 

Flying in Europe with EasyJet works out about the same pricing as well (usually under 30 pounds for most European flights). I guess North America has become the expensive market these days, I just checked a cheap flight from KLAX to KOAK was $89 USD with Southwest Airlines.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Brings back many memories. I lived in San Diego in that era. PSA was very much the "hometown airline". It had a very unique "fun" culture. The only thing comparable today would be Southwest.

 

Me too - my home town. I remember I took a PSA flight from SAN to SAC, B727, in 1972'ish and it was the first time I had ever seen vapor from condensation pouring out of the vents along the wall above the seats. There were a lot of others who apparently had never seen that before and were trading some nervous looks until the attendant explained that it was condensation from the air conditioner that had just been turned on.

[mabe54 17]

Thanks, you reestablished my confidence in my memory again. You see back in 77 Pan Am dumped me in LA with a nonredeemable ticket to Stockton. So, I was forced to find an airline that could take me there and for how much. PSA was the airline and 25 bucks was their price. Overtime, I started to think that my memory was truly going until now that I saw your attached file.

 

Cheers,

[Clutch Cargo 384]

San Diego is still my home town

 

Luved PSA. Had several friends working for the airline at the time. Sadly, I was an eyewitness to the tragic 727 mid-air crash that took the airline down. I went to the farewell party they held in the PSA hangar (now the commuter terminal). There were a lot of tears at that party. The CEO later said in an interview one of the worst mistakes he ever did was sell to USAir (hence my detest for USAir ever since).

 

Ahh, it seems like such a simpler time when I look back...

[mabe54 17]

Ahh, it seems like such a simpler time when I look back...

 

Never again, that's for sure.

 

Cheers,

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Sadly, I was an eyewitness to the tragic 727 mid-air crash that took the airline down.

 

I was in Fiji when that happened and I remember my first wife and I were very concerned that family could have been aboard that flight. Ironically, when I returned to KSAN in early 1980, I lived in the neighborhood not a block or two from where the 72 went down. There were still scars at the time.

[lthendrix 25]

ah yes, another testament to the fact that prices have risen, but wages .....not so much ! thanx for reinstalling the clarity

[Captain_Barfbag 31]

Eastern Airlines ran a Boston-New York shuttle hourly in the 1960s, and they put on extra flights during holidays. A a student, I could fly half-fare for $7. I still remember the flight where we took off from Boston, circled for an hour and then diverted back to Boston after the NY airports closed for weather.

 

Electras, maybe? I saw it as a free airplane ride, but others got nothing but a stomach emptying the wrong way.

[Clutch Cargo 384]

"I lived in the neighborhood not a block or two from where the 72 went down. There were still scars at the time."

 

That was Northpark, wasn't it? That event is imprinted in my brain like the Kennedy assassination and 911. I was in college at the time (SDSU). At a stop light on University Ave when suddenly there was a large flash in the sky (funny, I do not remember an explosion or a "boom"). Upon looking up I saw the 727, with wing ablaze heading straight for Earth. It seem to take forever to come down - I noticed all traffic had stopped and people were just watching unfold until a huge bloom of smoke could be seen coming from a local neighborhood.

 

My buddy at the time was dating a girl who, unfortunately lived on the very street it came down. Miraculously, her house was not hit. Later, she said as she was in her bedroom when suddenly an incredible explosion shook the house. Running outside she said all she could see in every direction was total destruction. All the houses were on fire and remains were scattered. It took her a long time at therapy to get over this. But I guess you never do.

 

Still have that evening's paper -

[Jeff Nielsen 1,385]

Ah man PSA!! I used to fly them all over CA! Thanks for the post. :Party: Gotta share this on FB

 

**can't get the image out of the forums for some reason.**

[JRBarrett 3,038]

"I lived in the neighborhood not a block or two from where the 72 went down. There were still scars at the time."

 

That was Northpark, wasn't it? That event is imprinted in my brain like the Kennedy assassination and 911. I was in college at the time (SDSU). At a stop light on University Ave when suddenly there was a large flash in the sky (funny, I do not remember an explosion or a "boom"). Upon looking up I saw the 727, with wing ablaze heading straight for Earth. It seem to take forever to come down - I noticed all traffic had stopped and people were just watching unfold until a huge bloom of smoke could be seen coming from a local neighborhood.

 

My buddy at the time was dating a girl who, unfortunately lived on the very street it came down. Miraculously, her house was not hit. Later, she said as she was in her bedroom when suddenly an incredible explosion shook the house. Running outside she said all she could see in every direction was total destruction. All the houses were on fire and remains were scattered. It took her a long time at therapy to get over this. But I guess you never do.

 

Still have that evening's paper -

 

So do I. I remember Flight 182 like it happened yesterday. I didn't see the actual crash. I was working at a small manufacturing company in Kearny Mesa. We happened to have KSDO radio playing in the shop, and they had a news flash just a few moments after it happened, as their studios were just blocks away from Dwight Street in North Park where the main part of the aircraft impacted.

 

We all ran outside, and could see a big plume of black smoke to the south, even though we were several miles away.

 

The FAA mandate to develop what we now know as TCAS was a direct result of this accident, as well as that of Aeromexico 498 which happened over Cerritos, CA a few years later, under almost identical circumstances.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

That was Northpark, wasn't it?

 

Yes it was. 182 was coming from Sacramento, if my memory serves. That image was flashed around the world and became famous (or infamous) because it was a rare image of a passenger aircraft in the final moments before impact. If you were a pilot or a frequent flyer, it reached down into your gut and made you wince.

 

I did my PPL out of Brown Field in 1972 / 73 and remember training in the Otay reservoir training area. Transiting from Brown north usually under the approach to KSAN 27 was always a nail biting experience. Traffic in all of the area was a major concern even in the early seventies. Combine commercial and military traffic out of NAS North Island, NAS Ream Field (Imperial Beach and now a NOLF), NAS Miramar, Montgomery, and Gillespie in El Cajon, and it was an interesting area to train and be an active pilot in.