United Air Lines’ Aloha service was launched on May 1, 1947, after the company secured government approval for the new route. The airline made its case based on the experience its pilots had accrued while flying across the Pacific in military service during World War II.

During that inaugural year some 2,100 people per month made the trip from San Francisco to Honolulu. For most of them, it would have been their first time flying and their first vacation on the island paradise of Hawaii.

In 1964, the number of air travelers had risen to 33,100 people per month – largely due to promotions such as this A Day in Hawaii luncheon. Nervous or excited travelers were often invited to hear about flights to Hawaii and the attractions that awaited them when they landed.

Held in 1949 in Carmel, California, this event was quite a swanky affair since only wealthy people could afford to travel during these early days of commercial travel. Representatives of United Air Lines (now simply United) were on hand to talk to guests over lunch in a local restaurant.

Fifteen local ladies were recruited to be models for a Hawaiian fashion show, displaying all the clothes a woman would need on vacation, staff from a beauty studio were on hand with advice on skincare and local travel agent David Prince of the Morse-Gleason Co was also available to give advice on planning a novelty vacation.

The cost of a round trip would have been about $270 – equivalent to about $,3,000 today – and would have been on a United DC-6 Mainliner 300 accommodating about 50 passengers.

The delightful illustration of a Hawaiian scene by an unnamed artist was on the menu of A Day in Hawaii and would surely have been a further enticement to fly.

These days, around three million passengers a year fly United to various Hawaiian destinations.