For Air Hollywood news and special announcements, subscribe to our email newsletter below:
By Cheryl K. Chumley
September 26, 2014
Who says you can’t go back in time? A Pan Am memorabilia collector is offering those who recall the golden age of flying — as well as those who want to experience it for the first time — a retro Boeing 747 setting, complete with 1960s-styled seats and uniformed flight attendants and top-of-the-line dining. The only glitch: The plane never leaves the ground.
So-called “passengers” can taste the good old days of flying, minus the flight, for $297 for a first class ticket or $197 for a clipper class ticket, the Daily Mail reported. The ticket buys access to the Los Angeles-based Air Hollywood sound stage, where crew members dressed from the 1960s and 1970s will serve them “Pan Am Experience” dinners aboard a perfectly reconstructed Boeing, the newspaper reported.
Why?
It’s all aimed at showing what it was like to travel during the golden age of flight, when seating was spacious and service was world class. Passengers have to dress for the occasion, too.
“Guests are expected to dress the part and dress nicely, just like passengers did in the 1970s,” said Rob Shalhoub of Air Hollywood, in an interview with Travel Skills. “We won’t require a coat and tie, but we will discourage jeans, sneakers, shorts or sandals. Our goal is to make this feel like Mad Men, and our guests should play the part.”
And among the menu items: Shrimp and lump crabmeat starter, Chateaubriand carved seat-side, chicken and a vegetarian pasta, fruit and cheese, and various liquors and coffee, the Daily Mail said.
“Younger generations have no recollection of what it was like to fly during the ‘70s,” said Anthony Toth, the owner of the largest Pan Am collection in the world and the individual who reconstructed the plane, in Yahoo Travel. This is a “way for you to get a feel for what it was like to fly, back in that era.”