By Amanda Kooser
September 19, 2014
Break out your avocado-colored bell bottoms. For a $300 ticket you can experience Pan Am first-class with cocktails, dining and hat-wearing stewardesses.
You have an opportunity to spend $300 on a ticket for an airplane that never takes off. What you’re paying for is time travel back to the go-go days of Pan American World Airways in the 1970s. The airline famously went bust in 1991, but not before setting the standard for polyester-era travel luxury.
Your Pan Am Experience starts with a smile.
Air Hollywood
Air Hollywood, an aviation-themed film studio, is now offering the Pan Am Experience, an immersive jaunt back to a world where orange was a fashionable color and in-flight menus featured items like chicken in wine sauce, grilled filet mignon, and cognac.
The experience takes place in a re-creation of a Pan Am 747, complete with first-class and clipper-class cabin seats. You’ll be treated to cocktails, dinner, and video and audio selections suited to the time period. “Everything from the china to the glassware is authentic with careful attention to the exquisite service delivery of the era and menu offerings of Pan Am,” Air Hollywood promises. The flight attendants are all decked out in original uniforms, complete with gold buttons, wide collars, and weird beige and blue colors.
The dinner events happen irregularly. The next date is October 18. A first-class ticket costs $297, while a clipper-class ticket will cost you $197. Don’t worry about leg room. Remember, this was back in the days when you could actually stretch you legs out on an airplane.
If you’re aching to relive Pan Am luxury or just want to experience a golden era of air travel you missed, then the front of you and your neighbor’s elbow in your rib cage while you snack on a bag of pretzels. On second thought, maybe you better book that Pan Am ticket.