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The Way We Were Wednesday - Flying Long Gone Airlines


 In the archive I have a momento from my father's first airline flight, on American Airlines, from New York to Detroit during World War II.  He saved up a couple of months pay to fly home on a short leave. 

My first airline flight was on Eastern Airlines, from Detroit to Tampa.  I flew down to help my grandmother drive home. I flew Eastern a few times in the late 70's.  I was in Atlanta changing planes from Delta to KLM, when Eastern shut down. 

I flew Continental once.  It did not go well.  The flight changed destinations during a stopover in Cleveland, resulting in a long wait. The return flight was messed up by weather.  

I flew TWA once.  My first consulting trip for the largest aging organization in the USA, to Sacramento with changes in St. Louis.  TWA had already announced merger with American Airlines.  

I flew Northwest a few times, it was not a good option from Lexington as they only had a couple of flights a day, and if anything went wrong it could take days to get rescheduled.  

US-Air, was largely the same as Northwest from Lexington.  When I moved to DC, I started using US-Air a lot more, lots of flight options from National.  My bookmark for American Airlines, still says US-Air. 

What long gone airlines have you flown? 

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