
It's hard to imagine now that people were even allowed to smoke on planes (let alone that smoking and non-smoking sections were next to each other without any physical barrier, meaning that the last row of non-smoking seats may as well have been smoking).
And yet, back in the day, all manner of wonderful features were installed on planes as airlines competed for business. Check out this list of incredibly civilised things that airlines used to offer you, including live pianists and people carving succulent pork at your seat and then sit back in your cramped modern-day seat and read your creased, sweaty copy of Sky Mall and cry. Cry for the past, when people wore hot pants and installed Peruvian art.
The Golden Age of Flight wasn't all chilled champagne and unchecked casual sexism, though - tickets were incredibly expensive (you think paying a flying pianist is cheap?) as this feature from the Wall Street Journal explains.