Qantas is marking the 90th anniversary of its first international flight (Brisbane to Singapore in 3.5 days, fact fans), and has sent out a stack of historical photographs to media to celebrate.
What immediately jumped out at me was the in-flight comfort guide for inexperienced flyers. Here’s what it says, with snarky comments from me in italics.
HINTS For Your Comfort
We hope that these few notes will be helpful to those of you who are not already experienced air travellers and will enable you to enjoy to the full the comfort that our service offers you.
BANKING: Let us assure anyone who may be flying for the first time that when the machine turns on leaving or approaching an aerodrome it will probably lean over. This ‘banking’ movement is a perfectly normal operation – it is just the same as the cyclist’s ‘lean over’ at a corner.
Aerodrome, not airport, you’ll notice.
CHAIRS: You can adjust your chair to a semi- reclining position by pulling it forward while the soft leather cushion at the back of the chair slides up and down to any position of comfort. Lap straps are also provided but their use is optional. Some passengers find that they increase the feeling of steadiness and comfort.
So seatbelts weren’t compulsory? No wonder they had to warn people about the plane tilting in flight.
DEAFNESS: During ascending or descending you may experience a slight temporary deafness due to the change in atmospheric pressure. You can stop this feeling by swallowing hard or by yawning several times. Some people cure it by holding their noses and blowing with their mouths closed.
We’d call it “ear popping” these days, but it still happens.
VENTILATORS: A special ventilator is mounted on the cabin wall just above your chair and can be moved by you to direct the airflow as desired.
Shutting the ventilator is normally the very first thing I do when I sit down on the plane.
WATER: Fresh drinking water is available. During summer months iced water is also carried.
REFUSE: The water-proof brown paper bag in the pockets on the back of each chair should be used for refuse, fruit peelings, or in the case of air sickness.
Air sickness bags are generally no longer a thing. I enjoyed the 1990s trend of envelopes mail order photo processing doubling as sick bags though.
LAVATORY: Is located at the stern of the passenger cabin and is equipped with washing facilities, mirror, etc.
SMOKING: Is prohibited.
AIR SICKNESS: Cases of air sickness are not very common but if you are not a good traveller we carry barley sugar which often proves very beneficial. Ammonia Tablets are also carried and are obtainable from the First Officer.
Bring back the ammonia tablets!
For more Qantas stories, check out whether it actually invented the term ‘codeshare’ and how well Qantas group boarding works in practice.
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