I remember seeing this commercial for the first time watching Johnny Carson. I was like 10 years old

I can see the point of the employees here. They have a very hard job, and anyone who has ever worked in customer service and just watched them doing their job for two minutes instead of whining about the seat space could see that. I worked for a bank for four years, at the front line. Day after day of people accusing you of running the bank incorrectly gets mighty old.

United is painting an A320 in the "Friend Ship" livery featured in this ad.

This airline has lost it's image. It's the most unfriendly, impossible airline to fly. I know employees have a hard job but we pay for the tickets, pay for our luggage, get crammed in tiny seats, and get charged for any change to our reservation. I feel for the flight attendants and ground agents having to deal with the customers who have dealt with the mismanagement of this once great airline.

Rip- United Airlines April 6, 1926-November 30, 2011 Crappy Continental re-brand November 30, 2011- Present

Sweet, warm-hearted. Back when airline travel was "people." And fun. Something to look forward to and enjoy.

Burgess Meredith on the voice-over.

First off, you have no idea what my career at United is like, and I don't feel threatened by Southwest or JetBlue at all, I have no reason to be. I miss when people respected the Privilege of air travel before they treated it as a God Given free ride. I don't hate seeing people who want the old days back, I do too, Back before the "greyhound bus" culture took over, before people acted Entitled to everything for Nothing. and for the record, I'm 2nd generation United, and God Damn proud of it.

Great images that you can actually see. Now advertising cuts images every half second so you never get a chance fully take in the shots. This UAL tv ad is great. Will never forget the Friendships!

Wow! The uniforms were groovy back then.

Why'd they ever discontinue that "friendly skies" livery? Like 1975 or 76 I think? Everybody loved it but hated that orange red and blue stripes thing they replaced it with.

They should have kept that livery. So classic. United is now just a people bus.

I wish they would bring back the middle folding down seat. that would be heaven when having to fly coach. Oh, the glory days of flying when it was fun and comfortable. Now airlines are like greyhound buses.

@madnavigator You've taken what i said to the extreme, I am tired of the "Everything for Nothing" disrespectful passengers. The passengers who know how to treat others and show respect are just fine and I enjoy helping them and I'm happy to see every customer we get, but when someone comes up who payed 80 dollars for a ticket starts yelling at me because he has to pay 25 dollars for a bag before i can even ask if he needs help, THIS is unacceptable behavior no matter What airline you travel on.

@madnavigator The only time United's "squeezed" more seats into an aircraft was the 757 "slimline" experiment. In fact with the induction of Economy Plus most UA mainlines have fewer seats than they did Pre-Economy Plus. As for the Increase recently in Express flights, you do realize they're pulling a lot of planes out for Re-painting and the -addition- of Economy Plus seats to Legacy CO's airplanes, also All flights over 3 hours still get food, Change fees have always existed.

As far as I'm concerned just like MyleneJ said "Why do you think first & business class passengers don't pay baggage fees and their food and drinks are free?" Because they pay 3X what we do for the same flight. You get what you pay for most of the time, actually not really. Flying is cheap that anyone can afford it. I can imagine countless hours in a rental car driving around the East Coast on Summer Vacations when I was a kid. Now this was in the 80's when flying was supposedly cheaper.

Treat counter agents like human beings, and flight attendants as more than Boobs with a drink tray and you just maybe may see a better happier person there. Used to be, people had respect for Pilots, Flight Attendants, and even ramp crew, now many people don't even respect themselves much, Abuse is more prevalent than anything and a human can only take so much of it. To everyone else who knows how to respect a fellow human being, You are the people i wish there were more of in the flying public.

@madnavigator The only issue I have with passengers, are people who arrive at the airport with a lack of respect who are "looking for a fight". I know no Counter Agent for any airline who wakes up in the morning going "I'll screw with passengers today", but I see customers start ranting or acting indignant from the start like who's helping them is personally responsible for everything wrong in their life. Airline workers are human same as you, Good service starts with respect. From BOTH sides.

1973

than it was in the 1970's. It's cheaper today. In a way you can pay $20 - $50 bucks for more baggage which seems fair. If airlines are going to give you transportation and drinks (those are still free) for a relatively low price then if you want more you ought to pay for it. It is really only fair. If you want to pack more, pay extra for gas. Also I find it hilarious that everyone whines about not being able to get free food on airplanes anymore. When it was included in the price of your

Is that Dawn Wells from Gilligan's Island as the flight attendant with the garment bags? I know another version of this ad has Angela Cartwright from Lost in Space.

@MyleneJ - You're right. Deregulation didn't help, either. I'm old enough to remember when flying was enjoyable, people dressed nicely on the plane and knew how to behave. Now that it's affordable to the WalMart crowd, it's become a joke. The airlines charge fees since the cheap fares don't cover operating costs. Why do you think first & business passengers don't pay baggage fees and their food and drinks are free?

Sad..now that airlines planes are so old the seats don't fold down in the middle, they collapse....

@madnavigator Also, how about the BS airlines have to put up with, for instance, did you know if your flight is Canceled, or delayed long enough, that the DOT (Government) forces the Airline to give you back DOUBLE what you payed for your ticket? So, That's fare right? No other industry anywhere has to deal with that sort of thing. You don't take your broken TV back to Wal-mart and get 2 to replace it, You don't even get cash back you get "Store Credit".

Skies of your land?

I wonder why all the airline commercials back then feature black skycaps? Don't they have white skycaps?

@madnavigator Funny though, how you call it propaganda. I've got documentation, contracts, and -experience- to back up what I say. You.. have words.

Friendship Service. What the fuck Happened?

@madnavigator Also for the record, I'm a ramp service employee at a Line Station, I'm not corporate, I'm not management, I'm one of your so called "over payed" union workers.

ticket, it was the butt of countless jokes. The buy on board food now a days is over priced, but the quality and "quantity" is actually better than what the freebies were before. Flying Is a chore, and the system needs to be overhauled, but that said if anyone does complain about flying coach cross-country... just gas up the car and drive from New York to Los Angeles the next time. Try and see how much money you will save doing it that way.......

@madnavigator What exactly are airlines Taking from you? Ticket prices are 35% cheaper than 25 years ago. Bag fees? the bag fees make up for the Fare difference of "pre-fee" tickets. Go on look it up, a ticket Now, is about 60 dollars on average cheaper than before United enacted its baggage fees, and guess what, 60 dollars is the cost of checking two bags in Economy, Doesn't seem so "shafted" now does it, in fact its a bonus to those without bags and SAME for those with.

Awful stuff at that time. All of that gross branding got replaced by Saul Bass Associates orange, red, blue scheme in the mid 70s, which was streamlined and stylish.

@madnavigator The fact that you keep repeating yourself over and over again, proves you're doing no listening and just trying to force your opinion on someone else. So I'll repeat myself and hope that maybe it sticks though, I doubt it. I do not hate passengers, nor do I or any of my coworkers seek to Alienate anyone, however after hours of Snide comments and personal attacks you can only smile at the next indignant person so much.

@madnavigator SkyWest is non-union, and doing well. One thing you fail to mention is SkyWest relies almost entirely on Express Contracts with major airlines and government subsidies for flying into small towns something that is going stop in the near future. JetBlue Is doing well for itself, to attribute that to being non-union is ridiculous. iam141(dot)org pick an airline look up the rules yourself. Trying to convince me that I'm any more expendable than any other job makes me laugh.

@madnavigator As for the merger, no one bought out any ones competition CO and UA merged equally, And before you spout off some anti-corporate hate speech it's an equal mix throughout management and so far all I've seen are good things throughout the Route system, but I'm sure you're going to have some inane nonsense to spout about things even though you have no idea what's really going on and why.

@madnavigator And again, you're blaming the airline for -Government- employees. if you have a problem with TSA, then blame TSA stop blaming the airlines like they like it anymore than you do. Not to mention the fact that its a mostly invalid excuse, as you see a Ticket Agent well before you meet Security, So "it's securities fault people act that way" doesn't float. Like i said before, respect the people serving you and you'll get service deserving of respectful behavior.

@madnavigator Or maybe you're just pissed because you don't get your free steak in economy anymore. Again, you're paying 35% less for your ticket, Operating costs have gone up, why should you get more for less just because it's an airline? You don't go to a restaurant and demand free stuff just because you're eating there. You don't have a right to Free anything on any airline, it's a luxury. So tell me why should anyone cut THEIR income Executive or Union employee, so you can get a free steak?

@madnavigator Excuse me? High Union Wages, We make at 10 years top-out just a little more than your average Costco employee makes. Do some research before you start insulting people and their wages, Forgive us for wanting a wage we can live decently on. Plus I'd like to know how Airline employees have become "police officers" sounds to me like you've gone and crossed TSA with Airlines. Management has their faults, but it would help if frontline employees got treated with the respect they deserve

@madnavigator Most of those Furloughed employees, at-least for united were -temporary- and most who wanted their job back, have it. A lot of airlines had to lay off people after 9/11, blaming the Unions for that is just ridiculous. All you're doing is bringing up instances of bad luck, poor economic conditions, and irrelevant information to try and make Unions the poster child for Evil. Based on your name, I'm starting to think you are former employee who got Fired and are just angry at that.