In the 1970s your plane ticket came with a nightclub in the sky

Back in the 1970s, one airline took ‘raising the roof’ in a nightclub very literally when it came to buying a plane ticket.

The current reality of overflowing plane toilets and cramped fights over the middle armrest was tomorrow’s problem when flying with Air Canada in the 1970s.

The plane company really took ‘it’s about the journey, not the destination’ very seriously and installed an honest-to-goodness nightclub – or should that be flight club? – on board the upper decks of its Boeing 747s.

The experience came with a mirrored wall, DJ booth, and a large dance floor – sometimes the stewardesses would even dance with the customers.

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Talk about getting down when you’re up high – the 1970s were truly the tail-end of the golden age of commercial flying.

While some airplane companies offered fine dining and drinks, Air Canada took it to new heights when in 1971, it launched nightclubs on the top-deck of its Boeing 747 airplanes.

Instead of desperately trying to get the person in front of you to stop reclining their seat into your dinner, you could be throwing shapes on the dancefloor while in the air between Toronto and several European cities.

The massive dancefloors had a mirrored wall like all good nightclubs do, and in 2004, one ex air stewardess told the Toronto Star: “Sometimes stewardesses would even dance with customers.”

American Airlines did something similar and installed a piano bar in the back of its Boeing 747-100 cabins, bringing a sense of camaraderie and fun to what is now seen as a stressful means to an end.

Unfortunately, like all the greatest things, the airplane companies quickly realized that they were losing money on experiences, and fitting as many people on board as possible was the most commercially viable solution.

Next time you’re climbing over a sleeping stranger to get to the harrowing plane toilets, remember what was taken from us and think about how you could be dancing the flight away – sigh.