I've not read every post, but here are my memories of the 1980s and 1990s flying UA, mostly HNL-Mainland:

F service included Rack of Lamb. Delicious, and carved at your seat. Real ice cream in bowls that did not crack: Imagine that!

Y class had lie-flat sleeper seats! Not really, but the planes were so empty, that one could score a whole middle row on a 747 or DC-10 and enjoy all the room that one could imagine.

Half-way to Hawaii Game: Guess the amount of time it took to get half-way to Hawaii, and you would win a bottle of wine or champagne.

Now, for my favorite: UA flight attendants would almost certainly give me a fully-new bottle of wine on my way to the exit on arrival. It was just an unpublished benefit that I scored by being a nice guy (in Y, mostly) during the flight and getting to know the FAs on a human basis. This happened so frequently, that I used to enjoy needling my siblings about "Why don't they give you wine too?"

Those were the good old days!