In the days before July 2001 when PL was started (if i remember correctly) GL was equivalent to king.

Calling the "upgrade line" 2 days before the flight almost assured an upgrade 2 days before departure ("shidrugim shalom medaberet...." ), it was never an issue to get special sitting for a co worker flying with you and calling any of the lounge guys directly (Lxxx comes to mind... ah, the farrah faucet hair style never got old) - and most of the time if an upgrade did not clear on the phone it cleared at the airport. (there was no better felling compared to walking from the C class lounge to the F area in the 'original' lounge).

PL was better. Literally, calling sherut shalom saying "Hi, this is Daniel, one of your PL's) would instantly cause most of what you needed, as long as reasonable (including special treats, like arranging C/class checkin for a family member flying without you) happen easily.

Not to mention very nice wines we used to receive several times a year on major Jewish holidays.

then, it went down hill.. and down hill.. and down hill until i stopped flying LY completely in 2006 and switched to LH (HON until the end of this month..) and after LH announced major changes to HON last august, i switched to BA.

sigh, the good old days.

p.s. - anyone remembers the very very very old F class lounge in JFK (old pre terminal 4 days) with no attendants and lots of old pictures hanging around of glory days? would love to find a picture of that.