First time I flew US was my senior year of high school in 1999, from LGA-GSO, either on a DC9 or F100. Nothing particularly memorable about the flight, other than it wasn't on an RJ and the GSO airport still allowed smoking in the gate areas (the whole airport was a "designated smoking area," IIRC!) The ticket was very reasonably priced, around $170 or so round trip with Saturday night stay and advance purchase. I remember how in the pre-TSA days, both JFK and LGA had groups of disabled or deaf immigrants selling trinkets in the gate area, since anyone could go through security. And of course, like a good FF I never checked bags, so always checked in at the gate.

Most of my US flying was from 2004-2006, when I went from dirt to Chairman's Preferred very quickly thanks to the triple preferred miles promo with the B of A Visa card. I quickly became hooked on the perks of being CP until my travel patterns changed and, around the same time, US began to take away all those perks. I lived in Charlottesville, VA at the time and usually drove to DCA or connected from CHO or RIC through my favorite hub PIT to my destination. Now even the RIC-PIT route is going away. I missed the glassware and ice cream sundae days in F, but the meals on transcon flights in F were decent up until the catering changes in early 2005.

I'm mostly a domestic flyer, but on the one transatlantic US flight I took (DCA-PHL-LGW in fall 2004, returning LGW-CLT-DCA) I was able to upgrade to row 1 in Envoy as a CP, on a sub-$500 fare.

Compare that to this afternoon, when I flew US from RIC-CLT. Ticket cost over $700 round trip. I should have just driven the 4 1/2 hours or flown DL or FL through ATL, but time was of the essence and my employer paid for the ticket, so US it was. I have no status now, so only middle seats were available when I booked the ticket last week. Fortunately, the gate agent moved me to an aisle seat toward the front of coach, as the flight was not completely full. Prices for concessions at RIC are ridiculous, and thanks to the TSA I can't bring drinks from home through security, so I paid $2 for a Coke in flight (at least they gave me the whole can!) If I had checked a bag I would have had to pay, even on a $700 "N" class fare. US is surely dreaming by calling themselves a "low cost" carrier with that kind of price. At least the A319 was clean and I got to CLT on time.

I only wish I had been around to enjoy the real glory days, back when Piedmont flew 737s to CHO and hot meals were served in coach. But I'm not that old