With yesterday’s merger announcement between American Airlines and US Airways, I thought it’d be appropriate to feature USAir in this week’s installment of Vintage Airline Seat Maps.
Appearing below is a Boeing 737-200 seen flying the skies in 1987. All of my seat maps from that year show USAir operating nothing but single-class aircraft – does anyone know when USAir officially added first class?
This “guppy†of a 737 seated 120 passengers with an aft facing row 1, complete with tables. Now that must’ve been fun if you were traveling in a group – game of poker anyone?
You’d find me either near the leading edge of the wing in 6A or 6F, or towards the rear in 16A or 16F to watch the reverse thrust action on those engines.
Where would you sit?
USAir Boeing 737-200 Seat Map
Related posts:
USAir Douglas DC-9-30 Seat Map
Wow I had no idea they had aft facing rows this recently
I probably would have sat in the poker seats if I had 4 or more people traveling with me. Those would be ideal for playing poker, euchre or pinochle in flight. Otherwise I’d probably be in an aisle at row 4, 5 or 6. Wouldn’t want to be anywhere near the back of the plane!
In the early days, the 737 really was a ‘baby’ 707. Times have changed and most 737s now carry more seats than a 707 ever did. Of note: Even on the worst-rated airlines, basic service on 707s was better than anything seen on a 737 today. For heaven’s sake, most of them served Real Food! Deregulation is why the carriers go broke, seatmates SMELL awful and many expose a lot more flesh than should be seen in public. I long for high prices, 50%-60% load factors (costs met at ~47%?) and polite seatmates.
I flew on this equipment in row 1 once some point in the mid-1980s. We didn’t know the people sitting across from us…nor anyone else on the plane…all of which pretty much ended up looking at us for much of the flight. Nearly 30 years later, I recall how unpleasant the experience was. If I was in a group of 6, I guess it would have been nice…but otherwise, this seating was a negative.
USAir officially became a 2-class airline in 1989 (with great fanfare at the time) immediately after merging with another large regional airline, Piedmont Airlines. At that time, USAir also ditched the red/brown paint scheme (a holdover from the late 1970’s when USAir was named Allegheny Airlines) and introduced the paint scheme they would use until changing their name to US Airways in 1996. From what I remember, until the Piedmont merger, USAir only had first class service on their small fleet of 727-200’s, used only on their longest routes, like PIT-DFW. I grew up in Pittsburgh in the 1980’s and liked to sit in the backwards facing seats in row, 1 because you got to look up or down at all the other passengers on the plane when you were taking off or landing. It was a cool perspective. In retrospect, I can see how it would be painful to be forced to sit facing total strangers, particularly if they wanted to talk your ear off.
@Lee: Thanks for the insight!