A Sign of the Times

Having just returned from a quick trip to Prague (more coming), where we flew on one of British Airways' older B-737's, I felt compelled to take note of a sign of the continuing decline in the refinement of airline travel.  On the way down from London I happened to notice that there was an unfilled hole in the back of the seat in front of me.  Then I saw that all the seats had these holes, and I quickly realised that this is where the coat hangers used to be!  They had simply removed them and left the holes open in the backs of the seats.

When we first moved to Europe in 1995, one of the "niceties" of flying was the fact that one could conveniently take one's jacket off and place it on the coat hook, just to the side of the seat-back tray.  This may not sound like much, because they were long gone in the US by that time, but I found it quite unique and useful when flying about Europe.  One of those things like, when in my very first days of business, looking down the aisle and seeing rows of well dressed businessmen in hats.  And no, I won't say exactly how far back that was, but the hats went quite a long time ago!

Now the suits are giving way to jeans and other informal styles of dress.  Apparently with so few "suited" travellers, British Airways simply felt the extra weight of the coat hangers was simply not necessary.  (I counted only 5 men in jackets on a recent British Airways intercontinental flight out of over 250 passengers!)

The point of all this is just to note that as time goes on, the former refinements of travel that we once took for granted continue to be eroded.  Those few remaining who ever flew in the 30's on aircraft such as the Boeing B-314 would say that flying then vs. flying now was a whole different mode of travel.  If you would like to learn more about the older, more refined style, visit the Foynes Flying Boat Museum, Co. Limerick, Ireland.  Every time we go, we are reminded of how dramatically aviation has changed in such a relatively short time.