There have been other threads talking about OP good old days. A few:


Tier bonus miles, when you reached Bronze at 20k, Silver, Plat.

Domestic rewards for 20k miles.

Call up and book your family for business class reward travel to Hawaii, just like promised, as simple as that.

A platinum calling the service desk, and actually getting a situation handled on the spot by an empowered, customer-friendly Continental person.

No RJs, so always a decent chance for a domestic upgrade even on short hop DC's.