At Work in 1972

John S posted these photos on the CP Air Employee Facebook page.  I hope he doesn't mind me using them here.  Just looking at these photos makes me feel a bit homesick.  I think it was one of the BEST jobs I have ever had.  The shifts were crazy - 5AM, 6AM, 6:30AM, 7AM, 7:30AM, 8AM, 8:30AM, 9AM, 9:30AM, 10AM, 11AM, 12PM, 1PM, 2PM 3PM, 4PM, 5PM then the midnight shift.  And, you worked them all.  And you "traded" shifts with people so they could take a flight somewhere.  

Back to the availability board above, we had no computers in the 1972.  All the flights that CP Air flew were listed on boards agains the walls of the reservations office.  Each flight was shown by number, each stop that flight made and 1 to 1-1/2 months of availability.  Each flight segment was marked by a) nothing (was totally available), b) an empty circle that showed restrictions on First Class, or c) solid squares which showed the restrictions on Economy Class.  These circles and squares were coloured white, red, yellow and there were stripes as well.  Red was flight full (closed), white meant only a few seats left so you have to request a seat from Vancouver, and I think yellow meant the flight was waitlisted.  This was an amazing system as you could tell the availability of all of the flights at just one glance.

Above is a section of the reservation office.  The first two rows were specialized and dealt with the Travel Agents only.  The next rows, how many were there?, 8? 10? rows were for general public.  The books at each station held all the information on, flights, fares, all the other necessary airline information.  We also had a giant hotel book and a TIM (Travel Information Manual) that told of visa requirements and other information for each country, and a giant Atlas, at the back of the room.  It was quite the pre-computer information system.