Another Airline Spinoff

PSA
PanAm
National
Western
Continental
America West
US Air
TWA
Eastern
Hughes Airwest
 


PSA (bought by US Airways):

800px-Pacific_Southwest_Airlines_L-1011_N1079.jpg
I flew PSA frequently. Today Southwest's business model is low fares and no assigned seats. PSA's business model was low fares and no reservation needed, just buy a ticket at the counter and walk on the plane. They used to sell what they called "Write Your Own Ticket" pre-paid tickets. My employer at the time bought us books of 10 or 20 flights at a time. They flew to Sacramento to Los Angeles every hour from 6 am until 10 pm, so even if the flight you wanted was full, they put you on the one an hour later. I never remember not being able to walk right on however.
 
Let's see what I can remember.

USAir and Peidmont (they were sister airlines at one point)
Northwest
Continental
AirTran back when it was ValueJet

There may have been others, but I'm not sure.
 
US Airways
TWA
Continental (I think)
Virgin America --- been less than a year since it merged with Alaska Airways, but I will always miss Virgin America
 


USAir/Airways (when I was a kid and teen it was known as Allegheny Airlines. I think they changed their name soon after airline deregulation in 1978)
Continental
Northwest
PanAm (my first flight)
Eastern
Midway
TWA
AirTran
Air Atlanta (short lived airline in the mid 1980s. They had all first class seating for a coach price)
BWIA (British West Indies Airlines)-it declared bankruptcy and stopped flying. Several months later it started up again as Air Caribbean
SABENA-(national airline of Belgium. The name is an acronym.) Similar to BWIA, it went bankrupt and reemerged later as Brussels Airlines.
 
I flew PSA frequently. Today Southwest's business model is low fares and no assigned seats. PSA's business model was low fares and no reservation needed, just buy a ticket at the counter and walk on the plane. They used to sell what they called "Write Your Own Ticket" pre-paid tickets. My employer at the time bought us books of 10 or 20 flights at a time. They flew to Sacramento to Los Angeles every hour from 6 am until 10 pm, so even if the flight you wanted was full, they put you on the one an hour later. I never remember not being able to walk right on however.

Since you mentioned a whole slew of airlines, I thought maybe you might have flown on Air California. I never did, but I remember them well.

800px-AirCal_Boeing_737-200_N466AC_Marmet.jpg


And nobody here flew on Aloha Airlines?
 
Surprised Low-Key hasn't shown up to mention Hooters Airline. I can't mention my favorite defunct airlines because my post would get flagged.
 
Since you mentioned a whole slew of airlines, I thought maybe you might have flown on Air California. I never did, but I remember them well.

800px-AirCal_Boeing_737-200_N466AC_Marmet.jpg


And nobody here flew on Aloha Airlines?
Forgot Aloha and Air California. Add them to the list.
 
Definitely Continental and probably Eastern. I lived in Houston, TX, during the 90s and Continental had a hub there, so I always flew them back and forth to visit family in New England.
 
Continental does sort of live on through the logo on their tail. Not sure why they didn't keep the United logo and ditch the Continental one.
 
TWA
Eastern
Piedmont - my first time flying without my parents was on this airline. I flew to camp and then back home. I always wondered why my parents had to send me to a camp so far from where we lived. That's a whole different thread.:rolleyes:
 
I was Platinum on Continental for a couple years - it had a hub in Cleveland and I was flying a lot internationally for work in the 90's.

Flew AirTran a few times out of CAK - they had some pretty good, reasonably-priced routes. Was bummed when they got swallowed up (by Southwest?)

Yes, AirTran was purchased by Southwest, primarily to get access to gates in Atlanta. AirTran had a small hub there.

I never was that elite at Continental, but I made it to Gold one year. The thing is, I didn't earn the necessary miles. I was upgraded from Silver because apparently I was one of the top 5% of Continental's passengers out of Philadelphia. I also got an upgrade from bronze to silver one year for the same reason.

I flew PSA frequently. Today Southwest's business model is low fares and no assigned seats. PSA's business model was low fares and no reservation needed, just buy a ticket at the counter and walk on the plane. They used to sell what they called "Write Your Own Ticket" pre-paid tickets. My employer at the time bought us books of 10 or 20 flights at a time. They flew to Sacramento to Los Angeles every hour from 6 am until 10 pm, so even if the flight you wanted was full, they put you on the one an hour later. I never remember not being able to walk right on however.

Were such ticket books good on any PSA flight, or only those between the city pairs purchased? For example, could you also use them to fly to/from San Diego instead of Los Angeles?

Continental does sort of live on through the logo on their tail. Not sure why they didn't keep the United logo and ditch the Continental one.


ffd1e0b7bb9c75d3a87f57a2527cd020.jpg


I like Continental's globe livery better than anything United ever had.

Or maybe United should have used Continental's old logo.


united%20airlines%20livery%20shading%20jpg2.jpg
 
Were such ticket books good on any PSA flight, or only those between the city pairs purchased? For example, could you also use them to fly to/from San Diego instead of Los Angeles?

At the time they only flew within California, and San Diego was their home airport. As I recall, it was anywhere they flew. But this was 40 years ago.
 
I know as a kid we flew TWA. I also remember a big yellow "banana" plane I was excited to ride in, but I'm not sure what airline that was.
 
I know as a kid we flew TWA. I also remember a big yellow "banana" plane I was excited to ride in, but I'm not sure what airline that was.

If it was a long time ago, perhaps it was one of Northeast Airline's "Yellow Bird" planes.

ac731329ea51a1d4171ce022a5366bdc.jpg


More recently Spirit's planes are all yellow.

1410839796029-DSC08561.JPG
 

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