
Travelling long haul in 1939: Melbourne to New York (2015) - benbreen
https://www.nla.gov.au/stories/blog/behind-the-scenes/2015/09/29/travelling-long-haul-in-1939-melbourne-to-new-york
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walrus01
Anyone interested in travel from this era should like these:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_314_Clipper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_314_Clipper)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Empire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Empire)

I am not certain on the exact economics of it, but have read that the
inflation adjusted round trip ticket cost of flying from Los Angeles to
Australia by flying boat in the late 1930s would be similar to, or slightly
higher than, the very top tier of first class long haul airline travel today.

[https://www.etihad.com/en/fly-etihad/our-cabins/the-
residenc...](https://www.etihad.com/en/fly-etihad/our-cabins/the-residence)

~~~
4cao
The article doesn't have the cost for the whole journey by air in June 1939.
They quote the price of the transatlantic Pan Am flight, which cost (US)$375
in June 1939 one-way, and from the linked newspaper scan, the round trip was
$650, so roughly $12k in current dollars. [1]

On the other hand, in June 2018 the cost for a Sydney-London round-trip (a
significantly longer route that also faces less competition than transatlantic
flights) in first class on Qantas was (AU)$10,700 [2], an equivalent to
(US)$7-8k now (depending on whether we take current or historical [3] exchange
rates).

"First class" nowadays can mean different things on different airlines,
routes, and equipment but prices are generally well south of $10k, with the
possibility of paying a lot less if you're willing to do your research and are
somewhat flexible. This was not an option at the time.

I think only the Concorde could compare to these 1939 prices: a NYC-London
round-trip would be $13k if it still operated. [4] But other than that, the
current first class offerings are less expensive.

1\. [https://data.bls.gov/cgi-
bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=650&year1=1939...](https://data.bls.gov/cgi-
bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=650&year1=193906&year2=202004)

2\. [https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/the-
cost...](https://www.smh.com.au/money/planning-and-budgeting/the-cost-of-
flying-first-class-how-can-anyone-afford-it-20180419-p4zait.html)

3\. [https://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/historical-
data.html#excha...](https://www.rba.gov.au/statistics/historical-
data.html#exchange-rates)

4\.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concorde)

------
spsrich2
I've wondered about how churchill and roosevelt got to Yalta in wartime. Also
the number of trips churchill made to the US risking U boats

~~~
4cao
Roosevelt traveled aboard USS Quincy. Churchill joined him in Malta. (For the
record, Stalin took a train.)

[https://archive.org/details/secondworldwar00beev/page/709/mo...](https://archive.org/details/secondworldwar00beev/page/709/mode/2up)

