Songfacts®:

• You think Spirit is bad, try S&M Airlines, where the flight attendants make you kiss their feet. In this song, NOFX frontman Fat Mike ends up on a round trip flight on S&M, and it's not for him - he'll never fly it again.
• "S&M Airlines" is the title track to the second NOFX album, their first that Fat Mike considers "listenable." It was also their first album on Epitaph Records, the label set up by Brett Gurewitz of Bad Religion. Gurewitz produced the album, which took them six days to record. It was a step in the right direction for NOFX, which kept a heavy tour schedule while also writing and recording lots of original songs. The album sold about 3000 copies the first year, which was encouraging. It also got them reviewed in a few publications and showed there was an audience for what they had to offer.
  
  NOFX went on to become one of the best-known bands in the world of West Coast punk rock, despite never crossing over with a pop hit. Fat Mike says his vocals from this era were terrible, but fans don't always agree.
• The band made a video for this song that was directed by Gore Verbinski, who later became a big-time Hollywood director, helming the Pirates Of The Caribbean movies. At the time, he was just getting his start behind the lens, and punk rock videos were a great way to get some experience and build a reel. He was part of the scene as a musician as well, playing guitar in a band called the Little Kings.
  
  The video includes footage of the band performing at a venue called the Anti-Club, along with shots of them playing the song on an airport tarmac and, of course, a dominatrix. Shots of the airplanes they got by jumping a fence at LAX, which you could get away with in the '80.
• Years later, we learned that Fat Mike is a frequent flier on S&M Airlines, into BDSM in a big way. He built a dungeon in his house, and his second wife, Soma, is a professional dominatrix. He's also into cross-dressing, and often performs in drag. This is all revealed in the book NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub and Other Stories.