Remember when:

1) You earned miles based on the class you flew in rather than the fare basis of the ticket? I used to fly DL to Europe and upgrade. It was DL's policy to give me C miles!

2) Minimin miles were 1000 instead of 500 on most carriers.

3) Elite's weren't given upgrade coupons, but they were sold cheap upgrades at the gate, or opperationally upgraded more often.

4) When you could upgrade to from the US to Israel for 40,000 miles.