More Than A Ticket (1980s)

Yes, of course. We're an airline and we've made our reputation flying millions of people around the world for decades in style and comfort efficiently and effectively. But for those same decades, we've been introducing people, travelers, to some of the great destinations within our reach. For we're more than just tickets and planes moving people. We're a highly effective travel organization geared to putting together trips that will bring our customers back for more. And it's those customers, those satisfied clients who can best express the kind of job we do. Hear for yourself what our clients think of our tours. Uh well I first of all I've had uh a good opportunity to do a lot of traveling around the world and this Finire tour is probably one of the best organized as far as the people uh the guides uh the sites that we saw everything the the itinerary uh was perfect. While we fly to North America, the Orient and of course all over Europe we do have our specialties including our fine trips to the USSR. Uh ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of in tourist, I would like to welcome you to the USSR and I hope your stay uh in this country will be pleasant and memorable. The Soviet Union is a mystery and approaching at the first time, thin air takes you there on time and keeps you moving. I'd say the hotels that the inourist people provided us were always the best available. Our guide was always discreet and handled things as if there was no effort. The bus driver was superb. He handled an enormous bus and streets not meant to be driven on at all. Take the Kremlin in Red Square for example. all those all those ornate churches and massive buildings. It's overwhelming and everybody goes there, not just tourists. Although I've done quite a bit of reading, um my impressions from pictures that I've seen of it have been of very forbidding, dark, um gloomy brick walls. And I I felt that the the Kremlin was very bright and airy. Uh the colors uh very cheerful. um lots of trees and um not at all forbidding. They change the guard at Lynen's tomb every hour on the hour, all day and all night, too. It's really dramatic. It's like standing in the center of the whole country. You You just stand there and you look around and hundreds of years and cultures bombard you. The churches. Oh, all that gold. It's pretty impressive. We went off on our own a lot. It's pretty easy. The metro is very good. And the subway and you can always point the things and people will show you in the right direction. People were really friendly, especially with the little children. They're always very curious and coming up to see what we dressed like and what we were carrying around. And I have a different feeling about the Russian people. They seem very human to me in a particular kind of way. It's been a been a rich trip and a rich experience. And I think it's important. I think it will take a long time for me to understand it. And I'm glad that I came. [Music] Yes, [Music] for the M The interesting thing about Nagar that one would never imagine if you hadn't been was the terrific feat of uh re reconstruction that the Russians have done on this uh small town that was almost devastated. Uh one would never know it unless one was told and it's well worth a short visit. I enjoyed Nogarod maybe more than I expected because it um because the two cities of Moscow and Leningrad are so huge that Nogarod's a rather interesting contrast being a much smaller Russian town. uh but having all the antiquities that um the big cities have in fact if anything more concentrated in Novagard. It made me very sad when I realized all the devastation they had and how they have built and um I just think that people like that are to be uh congratulated that rebuild from nothing and uh the churches I thought were beautiful and very elaborate some of them and I like Novagard very much. [Music] Uh my general impression of the trip is that it is an enormous education almost entirely too much to take in and that a phenomena might be that the trip keeps going long after it's over in your imagination. and it is unforgettable. This particular tour is a very good way to see Russia because there's something something safe about being with Fins. I'd never been on a tour before. We've always taken our own trips, but I thought for the most part we got along really well and they were from all parts of the country and of ages and uh it just sort of led a really neat atmosphere of all kinds of voices and feelings. [Music] I was very impressed with um Lennengrad. Uh just a beautiful city, so wellkept, immaculate, uh beautiful parks and buildings. Everyone should visit this beautiful fairy tale city was uh unusually beautiful to me because of antique churches and the icons. It's lovely in every respect and every minute was enjoyable. I think it's quite breathtaking when you step in and see all this gold and the paintings and what amazes me most is that uh everything is open. You know, people apparently are not afraid that anybody is going to do damage to it. So, it is beautiful. We found the inourist guides very very good. They were well informed and they knew their uh past and their history and they handled any difficult questions with great sensitivity. I haven't been on any other package tour that's been better organized nor a tour with more helpful guides. I was deeply impressed with with all the buildings that we saw. Particularly yesterday, I thought that the Katherine the Great Palace was just simply something I've never seen in my life or ever expect to see anything as spectacular as that. That was very, very beautiful. [Music] What was another thing was interesting on the trip down with our tour guides uh furnishing information regarding the war the damage occurred to the different cities where the battle lines were the various war monuments that made quite an impression on me. We've learned a lot. We go home and think about it for a while. We realize we have picked up a lot of knowledge. [Music] The acrobatics and the dancing and that was really spectacular. [Music] Oh, they were gorgeous. I never have seen anything so fantastic. They ought to go to Hollywood or be on TV. Oh, when I first walked in, it was just breathtakingly beautiful. Everything is so fresh, like it was just done yesterday. It looks to me like uh it was designed by a poor person who suddenly came into unlimited money. It just the ornateness of it is sort of poor person's idea I think of what would be beautiful. I wanted to go on this trip because it was a bus trip and I wanted to see the countryside and see how the people lived. But I guess I was really surprised at the contrast between the cities and the country. Uh the cities are so large and there's so many people and the countryside is is just that just uh homes and and a few people and and a lot of it is uh very very difficult living [Music] You've heard our satisfied clients and let me stress those are real tourists. Finire customers talking on a recent thin air trip to the USSR. But if we know the USSR well, there's one place we know even better. Our hometown and gateway for all thin air trips, Helsinki, Finland. It too is a tourist's delight. Nice that it's on the edge of the water with an interesting little market which we all like. I feel about Helsinki that that I might have seen most of the whole of the Finnish population there all very happy in particularly the young adults their liveless full of life I should say. Take our beautiful town square with our glorious cathedral. And everywhere you'll find the kinds of buildings and monuments you'd expect of a capital city, like our parliament. And nearby, right on the water's edge, there's the beautiful white marble Finlandia Hall, a concert and congress. the work of one of the century's most renowned architects, Alvar Alto. And all around the city, you'll find beautiful parks and monuments like the monument to Yan Sebellius, one of the country's most famous and favorite composers. Standing here, you can almost feel his music wash over you. Then there's our church that's carved right into the bedrock granite. Here, surrounded by rock with a beautiful copper ceiling vaultting over you, you get a sense of the power this rugged land exerts on its people. [Music] When I came back to Helsinki from Russia, it looked like paradise. No longer did it seem like another country at all. It seemed like my country, home. [Music] Via thin air.