Once upon a time, Continental Airlines widebody aircraft featured a pub on board for coach passengers. That meant if you were flying on one of their Douglas DC-10s, you could grab a drink, scarf down some free popcorn and even play the video game Pong.
The only other time I have seen a video game like that on board a plane is in the movie Airport ’77. It’s pretty cool that it actually happened in real life for a while too.
Continental Pub TV Commercials
Since the pub was a unique selling point for the airline, the marketing team went to town advertising it. There are a bunch of ads below, which are a real slice of the 1970s and 1980s. For example, in one an executive is asking his secretary to book his flights for him – and she has to do it by phone.
I think my personal favourite is the last one, where the guy goes to various ticket counters of competing airlines asking for the pub and being turned away each time. It’s cute how they just have part of the competitors logo in each shot.
The Seat Map And A Print Ad
Looking at the seating plan for the Continental Airlines Douglas DC-10 shows the pub situated right behind first class. Interestingly, the seats in the pub are marked with normal row numbers, meaning they could probably be sold as well.
Overall Thoughts
Those television commercials are a real throwback to another era. They really do a great job of highlighting the coach pub on board the widebody DC-10s of the time.
Of course, American Airlines also had a coach lounge for a while in back of their Boeing 747s. That didn’t last very long, but it sure looked pretty slick!
Did you ever fly on Continental Airlines and spend some time in the pub? How was the free popcorn, PubPong and service? Did it get used a lot? If you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image via Fly Continental on Twitter.
Seat map via Frequently Flying.
Cutaway via Vinepair.
Pub ad via AvGeek71 on Twitter.
Love the commercials! Days gone by. Free popcorn & “condensed feature films”! Wonder who did the editing of the films?
Yes, I wonder if it was the airline or the studio! Pretty cool commercials, I thought!