Remember when Qantas planes had iced water fountains and shaver bars on board?

My father trains thoroughbred race horses and has done for almost all of my life. Once he had some clients who were in the travel industry and one thing I received was a big glossy brochure showing what was inside Qantas planes.

Not only was it filled with beautiful seat maps (today, the best online are on aeroLOPA), it also had pictures of the product and other pertinent information. Some of that included the position of the galleys, baby change tables, iced water fountains and shaver bars.

Qantas Planes Had Iced Water Fountains?!

Passengers from the dawn of the jet age would probably be flabbergasted at what we have today. Your own TV at your seat? Amazing! Plus you can choose whatever you want to watch at any time? Mind blowing! Let’s not even get started on the Internet on board.

They would probably miss the iced water fountains though. I love to drink a lot of water when flying, and it would be nice to be able to just refill my bottle on board. Seems you could do that in days past, with multiple fountains available on the Qantas Boeing 747 fleet and even one on the 767s.

What About The Shaver Bar?

Back in the day, flights between Australia and Europe usually had at least two and often more stops en route. Naturally the gentlemen would want to disembark looking decent, so shaver bars were provided for a pre-landing shave.

Of course, nowadays services take less time and having stubble is considered highly attractive to some, so perhaps that is why they no longer exist. It’s a cute thing though, that’s for sure!

Overall Thoughts

I think I’d advocate for the iced water fountains to come back, as long as the water supply was kept clean. It would surely be a better solution than the umpteen thousands of bottles of water that are given out on flights at the moment (Hi Greta!).

Shaver bars, not so much. I was never a fan of electric razors, though I had one in my teens and early 20s. That was until I realised a proper shave gave a better result, and of course one can do that these days on board if absolutely necessary.

Those Qantas planes were very cool. Did other airlines offer anything like this? Do any today? Are there any items offered on flights in the past that you miss? Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured image by Aero Icarus via Wikimedia Commons.
All other images by Qantas.