Originally Posted by sbrower

1. Being able to "pay the difference" to upgrade an award ticket. Flying to LAX to JFK in the 747, overnight flight. Award was always counted as a "Y" fare. The "Fn" fare was only $25 more. So I paid the $25 and flew in First Class.
2. "Last seat" availability for award travel. Order my certificate for a domestic round trip to anywhere (I think it was 20,000 miles?). Walk into LAX 2 hours before the flight to JFK and say "I want to fly to JFK in 2 hours and return on Thursday" and hand them the certificate and they handed me back the ticket.
3. Block the seat next to me, in coach (the block went away at the gate, but it almost always held up).
4. Lifetime miles that were guaranteed to work off the same award chart for life. (It was in a letter from Mike Gunn that I kept in my file.) They broke that promise about 15 years later, and it is one of the few times that I felt that AA cheated me.
5. Channel 11 for air to ground communication throughout the flight.
6. Anna Jefferson (LAX) greeting me a few times a week and giving me a first class seat without any upgrade instruments, before I was a Platinum, because she (and others) had the authority to make decisions.
7. Going to the Aadmiral's Club whenever I was at the airport, not limited to flying AA (after having paid for 38 years of membership I probably should have bought lifetime).
8. I thought I would miss "hard" tickets. I was wrong.
9. Talking to my seat mate (it was common to talk for an hour or two going trans-con - now I make trans-con flights without saying "hi" to the person next to me).
10 Taking 2 carryons (garment bag and LARGE briefcase) plus a personal item (computer case) and hanging my garment bag in the front closet. (Well, as I get older and less interested in carrying 70 pounds I may not miss it too much.)
11. Full meals served in coach. I agree it was almost never amazing food. But why has it become accepted that people want to sit in a seat, for 3-6 hours, without a meal.
12. Hot meals served in First Class. I won't eat a "wrap" even if I am hungry.

I am probably forgetting some others.