Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: South Central US
Programs: UA Lifetime GS, AA EXP 1 MM, Delta Diamond, Hilton Diamond, SPG Plat, Hyatt Gold, Hertz 5Star PC
Posts: 181
It's funny that the people who remember "the gold old days" don't remember that all of the problems of air travel existed back in those days:
a) flight delays--not as many flights, but delays were still a pain in the neck
b) airline food--admittedly went down straight down hill, but other amenities made up for it (180 reclining seats, AVOD, etc.)
c) did anyone REALLY like flying in a 707-like first class cabin for 4,000 miles?
d) price - adjusted price, per my economist friend, would be 3-4x higher than market competition has provided
and
e) no status, no structured frequent flyer plans and horrible movies on bad projectors
YMMV, but I've been flying actively over 40 years and I have to admit it has improved as far as price:value ratio.