Remembering the original PSA Airline

[glass]

The interest in the Air Hostess topic in the upskirt thread reminded me of my all-time favorite airline, PSA. My memory is much too wordy for that thread, so I'm posting here. In the sixties, PSA Airlines was struggling to gain passengers. Interstate airlines were strictly regulated by the Feds in those days. PSA was a maverick company. They were an intrastate airline, flying only in California. Therefore, they could avoid the price controls that were imposed on the interstate major carriers. The major airlines hated PSA. PSA had to fight for airport gate space. Increased market share on the PSA routes came at the expense of the major airlines.

PSA began upgrading their Lockheed turboprop fleet to brand new jets in the mid sixties. To appeal to male business travelers, the largest segment of business travelers, they began an ad campaign that featured their sexy stewardess's and their shiny new jets. Newly hired stews were young, very cute and overtly sexy. Of course, in today's PC society, PSA could never get away with the obviously sexist ads. One unfortunate side effect of the new marketing campaign was that the company found reasons to lay off some good employees who were on the wrong side of thirty.

The PSA stews had uniforms options. They could wear a mini skirt and top, an ultra short mini dress or a more modest dress that was almost knee length. If a stew chose to wear the ultra short dress option, she could wear orange or pink bloomers, but it was not a strictly enforced uniform code. The bloomers sort of took the fun out of the mini's. In those pre-pantyhose days, some of the stews wore sheer mesh dancers tights or regular hose that were crotch high. Many were simply bare legged. They also had the option of wearing matching go-go boots. The PSA uniforms drove the major airline stews into foam-at-the-mouth hysteria. Their union considered PSA stews to be flying cocktail waitresses.

At the time, I was a young Army sergeant stationed at the Presidio in San Francisco. I had just returned from SE Asia and was getting used to life in the big city. As a sergeant, I had most of my weekends free of duty. I had close friends in San Diego. I made the SF-SD trip once or twice per month, with a stop in Los Angeles. PSA offered discounts to GI's on active duty. If I flew on an older Lockheed, the SF to SD round trip was, I think, around $30 with the GI discount. It took 30 minutes longer than pure jets each way.

The Lockheeds were configured with a few "U" shaped club seat areas toward the rear of the cabin, similar to restaurant booths. My favorite seat was in the very last row club seat. The other last row club seat section was used by the flight attendants. Their seats were used to store purses, bags etc.The small overhead storage shelves did not have doors. Also, that was area where some of the work was done. The benefit of sitting in the last row was watching the stews bending over the beverage service carts.

On my second PSA flight. a cute red headed stew sat diagonally across the aisle from me. She was wearing the ultra short dress, but wasn't wearing the bloomers. When she reached into the overhead bin for a magazine, her dress rode up, revealing pink nylon bikini panties. The pink was close to the shade on their uniforms. Until I realized that I could see the crack of her butt through the filmy material, I thought the panties were part of the uniform, similar to opaque tennis briefs. When the ladies were breaking down the service cart for landing in Los Angeles, I noticed that the two other stews were also wearing pink panties of various shades, definitely not uniform attire.

Our flight left SF around 6:30 PM and was about 75% full. Most of the passengers were businessmen who were returning to LA. The majority of people left the plane in LA. There was a 30 minute layover. During that layover, the red headed stew sat down across from me and asked me where I was going in San Diego. We had a conversation about the best places to party etc. Red was an "older woman" to me, about 28- 29 years old. Because of the center table between us, I could not get a clear view of her legs while we conversed.

On this particular night, less than twenty passengers were on board for the short San Diego leg. There was no in-flight drink service. After take-off. my red headed friend sat back down across from me. At some point during our conversation, I asked her if she could get in trouble for not wearing the bloomers under the short dress. She winked at me and said something like "oh, you noticed?", and I replied "of course."

Red told me about the changes within the airline. PSA was replacing the Lockheeds with jets, but there was an outside chance that they would keep their SD-SF fight on weekends if the seat traffic justified it. It cost less to operate it. The San Diego based stew crew on our flight were all part time employees who usually worked Friday to Sunday. They made two round trips per day. They were all in their late twenties and early thirties. If a jet replaced the Lockheed, they would all be laid off, theoretically because they had no jet training, but mostly because of their age. It did not matter that they were all very attractive and well proportioned. Unofficially, they did not fit the profile of PSA's sexy new youthful image.

According to Red, the ladies on her crew understood their probable fate. They decided that they would start their own campaign to save their jobs. If sexy is what the company wanted, so be it. The easiest way to begin was to wear the ultra mini dress and to not wear the bloomers. They did not deliberately expose themselves or act sl*tty, but it was inevitable that their panties would show at some point. All they had to do was raise an arm and the dress rode up in the back. Raise two arms and the dress rode up both in the front and back..

The flight had regular commuter passengers whom they knew by name. The stews made sure that the regulars got great service. They would then ask the regulars to write to PSA and tell the corporate people how much they liked the flight. The pilots also got into the act. Over the intercom, they asked the passengers to let PSA know if they enjoyed the flight. The pilots' jobs were also at stake. Their "Save the Lockheeds" campaign was completely unofficial and, I believe, unique to that crew.

The whole scenario fascinated me. At the tender age of twenty, that was the first time I heard an adult woman talk matter-of-factly about using strategic exhibitionism for personal gain. ( I do not include the strippers / hookers that I knew in Asia. ) According to Red, any woman who chose to wear a mini-skirt was fully aware that her nether region will be exposed on stairs and escalators, or when reaching and bending. If a woman wore the latest fashion (in the 60's), she had to live with the consequences and get over it. Innocently exposing their backsides was a painless way for the stew crew to make the business customers happy. If the passengers were happy with their appearance and service, it was a job well done. Their careers all depended on customer satisfaction.

When I asked Red to join me for a drink in San Diego, I was politely informed that customer satisfaction ended once my feet hit the tarmac. However, she did urge me to book my trips on "her" airplane. I flew with that crew several times and was always visually rewarded. Sadly, before my tour of duty ended at the Presidio, PSA cancelled the Lockheed flights. Later, PSA was purchased by US Air and became just another boring airline.

I've attached a few pictures of the PSA ladies and their uniform options. Also, for the curious, a copy of their price brochure that was upgraded by hand and a picture of the late, lamented Lockheed Electra that is featured in my memoir.

[glass]

Like an idiot, I forgot to add the fore-mentioned pictures.

[jiinx81]

My sister tried out to be a stu on Delta. They had many of the same rules - out if you reached 30, out if you got married, out if you blimped up, and many others. She actually had to take a class about how to select the correct "undergarments" for flight work. Also I loved Continental's old tag line that went with their hot stus - "If you can't fly Continental, who's going to move their tail for you".

[stevezr1]

A little Stewardess / pilot history:

When the GF & I (now wife) first visited St.Martin in 80's I did some reseach on Orient Beach.
In the early 80's Orient beach was basically a deserted, undeveloped beach.
Adjacent to Orient beach, beyond the rock jetty near club Orient is a very large cove, Baie Embouchure (sp?) with a hotel called Le Galion. At one time this was one of the premier hotels at St. Martin.

According to history, this was the beginning of nude sunbathing on St. Martin, possibly the entire Caribbean.
Apparently this hotel was where airline crew laid-over, and the naughtly stewardess's would go topless and nude by going through a path from the hotel beach to Orient Beach. I recall reading a LOT about Stewardess & pilot "fraternization" at that hotel during the wild-free-love '60s. BTW, that hotel is long gone. But still a nice beach to visit, when we were last there is was non-touristy family type beach with ocassional topless use.

And speaking of St. Martin & stewardess's, on one of our then-frequent trips there, early '90s?, GF & I were the last to leave the plane, using the rear exit. With me following the GF, two Stewardess's were behind me, wishing everyone well. When wham! The one directly behind me cupped & squeezed my asscheek! And when I spun around she looked me in the eye and wished us both a very, very happy vacation! I knew then that she was NOT shy, and HAD to be a player. I'm sure she forgot about that moment a week later.... I'll never forget it! Thank God for the Stewardess' of old. Bless you all!
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[Wyattjr]

Did PSA not stand for People Scattered Allover?

[stevezr1]

Resurrecting an OLD tread:

Obviously I am intrigued by the stewardesses of a bygone era.
... The other evening I was clicking through the channels on TV and stumbled upon an hour documentary about just that, "Jet set Stewardesses" (or something like that) I believe it was shown on Nat'l Geography or Discovery channel. A lot of the show focused on the history of the aircraft themselves, and how the jumbo jets basically killed-off the stewardesses of old. Not to mention women's rights, etc.

Anyway, they interviewed a bunch of very sophisticated women who worked during that era and each had a story or two to share. Of course these women are now 60+ or even 70 y.o. and still looking pretty damned good. Interestingly, most of the women interviewed had pictures of themselves, some in bikinis, from the good old days. One in particular was a jaw-dropping smokin' hot beauty. But then again, in those days, if you couldn't win a beauty contest, and be very intelligent, AND single, you simply weren't even considered.

The narration made sure to point out that there was no wild, free-and-easy sex going on with the stewardesses, yet undertones hinted of a different story. Even a few things the women themselves said hinted of such goings on, especially hookups with the "cabin crew". They also mentioned how they would regularly lay-over for a week at a time at exotic destinations such as Fiji, etc. Also it was mentioned that one stewardess who got to know a Sheik she met during a flight was given a brand new Hot Pink XKE Jaguar. hmmmm, they must have been really good friends!

Interesting documentary.
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[thephotoguy]

I had an aunt who used to be a stewardess on PSA mostly on the SF-LA commuter in the early 70's. She mentioned a few times that she really enjoyed those days. She would have been in her early 20s and from one of the photos she shared I must say that she was hot. She told my girlfriend at the time that it wasn't uncommon for a few of the stewardesses to go out with a number of the male passengers. Especially, over the weekends. Related to an earlier comment, she drove an expensive car and had an apartment in Marina Del Rey with a fellow stewardess. She eventually married an older prominent attorney who by chance was a frequent flyer