What was flying like before 9/11?

[Wandafishcake]

I was 14 in 2001, I remember that security processes at airports got much tighter and more time consuming following 9/11, but I can’t properly remember what it was like before? Was the security much quicker and less intense? Could you take more things into the cabin with you?

Just remembered that in the 80's they didn't cram passengers in like sardines.

Air NZ and American used to be good with about 36 inches in economy (EasyJet is 29 inches).

Flying used to be pricey.

@bizboz

It was a lot quicker to get through security. I used to live in another European city and I remember once I was running late for my flight and only arrived at the airport 30 minutes before departure. I got through check-in (had to be done in-person at the check-in desk in those days), security and onto the plane in that time

Our local city-centre airport in the 90s (not in uk) offered a 10-minute check in before departure as standard if you only had hand luggage - with bags that time went up to 20-30 mins. It was one of their main marketing points for attracting business people to fly from there. It was only possible because the apron where the planes were waiting was about 50 metres from the street, with just a long thin check-in hall between them, so virtually no walking to the gate.

Used to arrive at the airport 40mins before the flight, check in and straight to the gate. I think the only time it took longer to go through security was when there was a flight to Northern Ireland scheduled. Then they turned up the scanners to full so any metal object set them off.
I remember flying back from Greece and sitting just behind the cockpit, the cockpit door was open the whole flight and as it was evening we had a view of a wonderful sunset for most of the flight.
Pilots would usually have a break and have a stroll around the cabin chatting to passengers.
We flew to the Caribbean a month after 9/11. Our flight was from Heathrow and the check in desk was next to Air America desks. There was full security just to get to the desks. The airport was really quiet.
On our return a woman was arrested because she made a big fuss about leaving her nail scissors in St Lucia airport because she’d packed them in her hand luggage.
All very surreal.

I am glad that now they've changed it in a lot of airports so you can take a water bottle, empty it before security and re-fill it airside. I really resented being made to buy a bottle of water! And now you have to be there for so long you do get thirsty and headache-y with all the bright lights and air conditioning.

I remember flying out of Tel Aviv in 1994 just after the Hebron massacre. Security was ridiculous for obvious reasons and every departing passenger was grilled for ages about where they’d been and what they’d been doing. Then we went to the duty free where you had to leave your bag outside on an open rack where anyone passing had access to it. Sheer lunacy. We took turns to go in and stay with the bags.

@CarrieBlue

You used to get proper cutlery with meals. Both my grandfather and father ‘collected’ teaspoons from any plane that they travelled in. I think I pocketed an Austrian Airlines one too.

There was a short time after 9/11 when you didn’t get proper cutlery but that stopped years again. This is more to do with lowering costs to keep prices low now. You get proper cutlery if you fly in Business or First on most airlines.

There was a time just after 9-11 when they were super-strict about anything that could theoretically be used as a weapon - many knitting needles were confiscated as a result, though they have relented on that now.

Before 9/11 you could basically take as much in the cabin as you could.
I would take my Vanity Case with all my lotions & potions, a big bag with books, drinks, snacks, make up, magazines etc & my handbag in the cabin with me.
I remember quite a lot of women having vanity cases with them.

Also on one flight to the Caribbean back in 98, a young lad had a massive ghetto blaster in the cabin with him.

I remember flying to Malta in 1976...I was 9years old....flew out as an unaccompanied minor to see my relatives....the stewardess ( as she was then called) took me into the cockpit to meet the captain 👨‍✈️.... I thought it was amazing!

@Peccary

I flew internally in the US in 1999, I was late due to traffic incident and they basically rushed me through security, not sure my bag was even checked.

DH and I flew from Orlando to the UK in October 2017. We joined the back of the queue for security/TSA checks and the agent at the start of the fifty mile long queue just took one look at us and ushered us through. No x-rays or anything. Obviously we do not tick any of the "potential terrorist" boxes.

@Wandafishcake

Could people visit the cockpit pre 9/11?

Yes - I remember as a child (80s) visiting cockpits- there would often be an announcement asking if any children would like to visit - often a parent would rock up as well. I had a BA Young Flyers passport type thing that the captain would sign and I would put details about the flight in it.

I’m sure MNers will be up in arms about this, but when I was 15 (1997) we went to Cyprus for a family holiday in term time. Both me and my brother had our school backpacks with us as hand luggage.
On the way back my parents, who had done a lot of alcohol shopping while we were there, packed our backpacks with all the alcohol, and my brother and I carried them through security and customs.
Should probably explain that i’m from a non EU country and at the time duty free allowance was very small, we brought back about 3-4 Time more than we should have.

Also in the late 80s/early 90s i used to Get sent to my grandparents for a month each summer, from 7 onwards i think. I would fly alone, with a handy sign around my neck with Words to that effect, at each connection the flight attendants would take me with them to their break room (small airports, but usually 3-4 connecting flights) and i always got to go visit the pilots in the cockpit.
It’s insane really the things you were able to do

My sister was chronically late a lot to in her youth and she also travelled a lot. I lost track of the times she checked in her luggage in the main hall and was given a late boarding pass to get through the passport queue . She would wave it and be waived to the front of the passport queue and then straight to the gate.

I can't even remember hand luggage being scanned or searched when I used to fly in the late 80s but I suppose it must have been at some point as even in those days we had plane hijackings so.they must have been concerned about weapons in hand luggage I suppose..

@Blossomtoes

I remember flying out of Tel Aviv in 1994 just after the Hebron massacre. Security was ridiculous for obvious reasons and every departing passenger was grilled for ages about where they’d been and what they’d been doing. Then we went to the duty free where you had to leave your bag outside on an open rack where anyone passing had access to it. Sheer lunacy. We took turns to go in and stay with the bags.

To be fair even in the 70s, Israel had much higher airport and flight security than any other country. Israeli airways flights always had massive queues in those days

When I came to Europe in 1994 you could still smoke on planes. The back of the plane was the smoking section. It was unpleasant & many smokers sat in non smoking & went to the back of the plane when they wanted a cig.

On a 12 hour flight a group of friends stood at the back, with their own drinks trolly and drank & smoked for most of the flight. I've never seen anything like it 🤣

I remember on a family holiday in 1998 where I had a picture of me taken sitting on the pilots lap in the cockpit 😂

I remember going to the cockpit mid flight as a child. I also visited New York prior to 9/11, the same year, and remember security being very lax. There was 'voluntary' bag screening, and they were willing to fly bags on separate flights to passengers on internal flights. Seems crazy now.

Ohh and I remember the smokers section where there was a curtain to separate the non smokers. It feels so weird how times have changed.

To be fair even in the 70s, Israel had much higher airport and flight security than any other country.

Except when you were forced to leave your bag where anyone could tamper with it!

@TwoleftUggs

In 2000 my mum and I flew to Amsterdam. The guy sitting over the aisle from us sat stroking a knife the whole time we were sat in the runway. It freaked us out a bit tbh, a stewardess asked him to put it away, he told her he was going to use it to cut up his apple and she left him to get on with it. A knife! It sounds bonkers now.

knives technically weren't allowed in cabin baggage long before 2000. I had a lovely and expensive Swiss Army knife (still got it) which I had shoved in my hand luggage, not my suitcase, in the mid 80's. It showed up on x ray in Schipol and they pulled me out and searched my bag. I just said i was sorry and if they needed to confiscate it then that was fair and the nice man looked at me shaking in my shoes and said "don't do it again" I think DH thought I was going to be arrested!

So many memories of flights pre 2001

With my family it was ; being in the smoking area of the plane , getting to visit the pilot on his cockpit during the flight , real cutlery etc

With my friends going to Ibiza / Tenerife etc late 90’s - being able to take whatever we liked in our bags to the cabin like litre bottles of vodka purchased at duty free and being able to drink it in flight
Allowed make up and nail files etc on flight

Coming to the UK from NZ in 1971, doing the traditional O.E. (Overseas Experience), a compulsory rite of passage for Antipodean youth, it was simply too expensive to fly. Instead, I sailed, alone, on the "Ellinis", a four-week voyage via Papeete, Panama and New York. Since then, I've done the same trip, by air, many, many times, often being at "home" for way less time than it took to sail from Auckland to Tahiti. Going by sea makes you realise just how unimaginably huge is the Pacific, when from a plane, it's merely a patch of dark that passes in the night.

On a trip to Krakow I was flying back with hand luggage only and was pulled up for having a cast iron meat grinder I had bought for my mother. The argument was that it was too heavy an object to have in the cabinet.

The security guards (who are all military) suggested I check my case in but given the fact the grinder cost £7 and to check in a bag cost £30 I declined.

I always get stopped everytime no idea why but the only thing I remember changing really is the like hand luggage body wash etc being in plastic bags and a certain size.

Possibly remember smoking on planes to.