As an aviation geek there’s an experience I’ve been meaning to have for a long time, though I haven’t had the opportunity yet. I’m sure many of you have heard of this, but I figured I’d write a post about it for those of you who haven’t. Think the “good old days” of travel are over? Well, you can relive those days without even getting off the ground.
There’s something called the Pan Am Experience, which tries to replicate the experience of flying Pan Am a few decades back. This takes place in Los Angeles at Air Hollywood, which is essentially an airplane “set” used for movies, TV shows, etc. However, every so often they also have evenings where they offer the “Pan Am Experience,” which is exactly what it sounds like.
For anyone not familiar with it, perhaps the best introduction is this Today Show clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMw45ZI1zh0
I actually wrote about this in 2014, though never got around to trying it. Completely randomly I remembered this a couple of months ago, but all tickets were sold out, so I added myself to their email list. Just yesterday I received an email indicating that nearly a dozen new dates were available for the experience, including the following:
The email also came with a pretty appropriate headline:
The one “catch” with the Pan Am Experience is that it isn’t cheap… at all. There are three choices of seating options:
- Upper Deck Lounge: $690 per pair
- Main Deck First Class: $590 per pair
- Clipper Cabin Dining Room: $490 per pair
So yeah, it’s expensive, but at the same time it seems to be quite a production, and for an aviation geek, seems like an experience that’s worth having, if you can swing it. As you can see, Upper Deck passengers even get caviar, and all passengers get a shrimp cocktail, chateaubriand, etc.
While I’ve known about it for years, it’s really time I have this experience, now that dates are wide open.
Has anyone done the Pan Am Experience? How was it?
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