I experienced global first on SFO-SYD on 744 in 1997. Service definitely a notch above because the crews still enjoyed their jobs back then. I remember proper caviar with chilled vodka shots. IFE was a small hand held vcr type device that played videos from the small cassettes that persisted into the early 2000's. As some have said above, business class was nothing more than a premium economy seat today (probably not as nice). First was lie-flat or almost flat. I routinely paid 8k to 10k RT for a business class flight and then was upgraded into first by my corporate travel dept. If you asked if I would ever pay $15k in 2019 USDs for that service the answer would be a resounding no. I also probably only netted ~31k RDMs at best. That said UA did have proper ground experience (escorts to plane, and meeting at gate to escort to immigration / customs). Different times, so hard to compare the total experience.