Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/05/02/the-pan-am-experience-lux.html
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But the food is better and they won’t knock your teeth out or kill your rabbit.
Well, I’m in then. Bon Appetito!
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I have never flown Pan Am (my city was more of an Eastern hub), but I would pay $300 without batting an eye - if I can dress up in my 70s best.
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I love their uniforms! But they could really generate more revenue if they modeled the restaurant on the coach section.
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I might sound obnoxiously out-of-the-loop here, but who exactly is this for? What demographic(s) of people would be interested in eating dinner in a pretend airplane? Is this for folks who really like airplanes? For past Pan Am fans? I’m genuinely curious.
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I think it is the 70s cosplay that people enjoy. This is just a maid/butler cafe for Americans.
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Aren’t all restaurants “maid/butler cafes”? After all, that’s what the wait staff is.
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I’ve never had waitstaff dress up like a French maid or an English butler complete with tails. Perhaps you go to more interesting restaurants than I do.
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How much more to upgrade to the “PSA Experience?”
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I think the 60s might have had better outfits, but the 70s had better plane interiors since the 747 launched in '69.
They say fashion is cyclical, but for some reason the mini dress + tights + go go boot look just won’t come back.
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That Austin Powers documentary suggests otherwise.
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Somewhat tangential to the subject of cosplay-flight-experience that this is about, I regularly amused when people are comparing old flight cabin experience to modern economy-class experience. They’re the wrong comparison. I’ve been wanting to know what the (inflation-adjusted) price of the old one is. I’m pretty certain it’d be closer to business or even first-class tickets nowadays.
One number I’m finding online is that a NYC-London flight in 1970 cost $550 for coach class (don’t know if round trip or direct). If that seems cheap, know that it’s equivalent to $3400 today. In comparison, I’m finding round-trip tickets today for $1200 (and that’s skipping over some bargain deals), so almost one-third of the price then.
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Plus photos of Pan Am in the 70s are almost always of the first class lounge. Economy was pretty similar to what we have today. And in the 60s, everything was cramped because of the smaller planes.
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I never pass up an aviation museum, actually I never travel without first checking my routes for them. Smithsonian A&S museum is a cathedral to me. I keep a list in my head of all the exotic or unique planes I have seen, touched, and watched fly. I have stayed in an airplane converted into a cabin. I sit on 120 degree tarmacs and inhale toxic jet fumes just to watch boring ass airshows. Pilots and astronauts make up the bulk of my heroes, and their stories are my primary entertainment. I love everything that flies, from pterodactyls to the space shuttle.
But this thing repulses me.
I think it is the cost combined with what I am pretty sure is going to be a bad dining experience- catered food while sitting in a plastic interior and surrounded by polyester. Its like Medieval Times for an even smaller demographic of people.
Somehow this enticing experience is missing from their PR material:
Blegh!
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At this point I say fuck the 21st century. We should bring back the 70’s. On balance, I think it was just a better time.*
[* Yea, I know, progress. But frankly, about the only real “progress” I think we’ve made is in the acceptance of homosexuality. And I have a suspicion that today’s push for diversity is actually a bit thinner than most people realize…but I’m sure people can come up with 100’s of reasons why “today is better”…]
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If and when we get regular passenger service to the Moon, the company offering it really must rebrand itself as Pan Am.
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How is that authentic?
Is there at least a chance that the whole restaurant will plummet 20,000 feet to a fiery death?
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I like that she’s over Sri Lanka. A nice shout-out to Clarke.
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Oh, a very big chance, I’d say…
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