Your first time flying

[HighburyLass]

Just out of interest following a conversation with dh.

Where did you fly to?
How old were you?
what year was it?

For me, it was 1982, I was 13 and we flew to Boston USA! I was so excited! An enormous plane, headphones plugged into the seat to listen to music and a large screen film (no choice of movie). 3 course dinner, snacks, fizzy drinks, I felt so spoilt! It all seemed so glamorous.

You?

3 or 4, out to our place in Spain, the air hostesses were beautiful and so kind and really doted on us. I ended up with a collection of air hostess dolls, still got them somewhere. This was the mid 1980s.

I was 10, it was 1978 and I spent my 11th birthday in Luxembourg. I was so excited to be above the clouds. I then spent the next 11 years flying every few weeks, all over the world, the novelty wore off pretty quickly!

My first... and last plane trip.

Aged about 7 (1980), we went to Spain. The flight was good.

1976: I Was 15 flying to Calgary with my Mum to stay with my school friend's family - they had emigrated in the early 70s. Air Canada 747. Had a fantastic trip and have been back several times. She still lives there and we are still in touch.

1988 Age 16 on a school trip to Soviet Union on Aeroflot…I assumed all flights were that terrifying!

I was one year old and flew to Canada. It was 1986.

Crete 1987. I was an adult, not telling you how old I am…

I was also 13(1994), we flew to Gran Canaria. Our great gran passed away and left some money. Our gran said to me and my brother here's the brochure, choose your holiday. Still one of my favourite holidays. Was so much fun looking through the brochure.

I was 11 and it was the eighties. We went to Greece. The aeroplane seemed huge, we were in the smoking ‘section’ as my parents both smoked. We got a meal included.
I was scared though as around that time casualty showed an episode involving a plane crash that I watched. My dad kept making jokes that it looked like the one Buddy Holly got off.

1986. I was aged 23. Flew from Glasgow (or maybe Edinburgh. Can't remember) to Southampton for a job interview. I had only been abroad once at that point and we had gone by ferry. I'm well traveled now.

I have no idea why my post looks so weird. The date is supposed to say 1986.

1980. I was four and we flew from Southampton to Guernsey. Little did I know this was my parents' trial run to check how I was with planes, because the next year we went to Florida.

1978 to the then Yugoslavia. Sat in the smoking section at the back. Cabin crew all put on white gloves to hand out sweets on take off and landing. First holiday abroad with my boyfriend (now husband) and I was madly in love.

Same, @ApolloandDaphne - we have discovered paragraph formatting on Mumsnet!

1985, I was 16 and we went to Majorca, the first and possibly only package holiday I did with my family. Can remember the hotel, and my holiday fling but nothing about the flight.

We had been to Europe most years from the late 70s but by ferry and car.

I have always wondered if it was a bad experience as whilst I have flown all over the world since then, I really don’t like flying, I can feel my anxiety levels rising the closer to the day and take off it gets.

I was 16. Flew to Spain for first family holiday abroad. I was on crutches with an injured knee. There was a bomb scare at the airport so we had to evacuate (which included two strangers carrying me down stairs before of said knee injury!)

strangely I am not a massive fan of flying!

1997 - I was 18 and went on a University trip to Italy. I was very excited and was overawed looking out at the Alps as we flew over them. I went with a lot of better off friends who were most amused to learn had never been on a plane before.

We had been abroad a few times when I was younger, but living on the Kent coast meant we always got the ferry to France or Belgium and drove.

This must have been on the cusp of the low cost flight revolution as then I flew with Alitalia and we got a meal (which seems mad now for a flight as short as London to Rome) and I worked all Christmas holidays and asked for money for Christmas to pay for the flight. Just a couple of years later I was flying on city breals and sun holidays all the time

28, to Italy on my honeymoon.

1976, aged 13, on a school ski-ing trip to Austria. First time flying and first time abroad at all, most family holidays were spent in Great Yarmouth 😄 went to see the Winter Olympics. One of my best memories

I was 19, it was in 1988 and we flew to Toronto as it was the nearest international airport to where family live in northern New York State.

So easy to enter the US back then, we used to cross from there to Canada and back almost daily and it was just a matter of showing your passport at the border. No questions asked, no fingerprints or eye scans needed.

1973, Greece mainland I was 2. I have no recollection at all.

I was 15, in 1999 and flew to Tenerife with a friend and her family.

The flight home was a Friday 13th which I remember stressing about in my teenage angst!

My mum either by mistake or not watched a movie about a plane crash in the jungle or mountains the week before we flew somewhere. She was anxious after that.

Aged 7 flying to Majorca in 1968. It was so exciting! I remember the air Hostesses (as they were called then) coming round with boiled sweets in little baskets and offering them to everyone prior to takeoff.

That’s pretty unusual and cool!
I have questions.
Have you been abroad?
Do you have a passport?
Would you, for eg a long weekend in Europe with friends or family?