AwardBee

I spent 110K as they priced it as an Africa award, and ~$200 in taxes. Won't get that kind of a deal anymore.

Insiderdude

Started in the early 2000's as an FlightFund Plat member, then on as a CP on US until our convergance as AA EXPs. Lots of good memories on the HP LAS midnight bank of flights (even to places like YYC and YYZ), as I recall many a times scanning the Sunday night gate scene (after making my way from the pre-TSA HP lounge) seeing the casino-weary, buffet-laden (mostly) kettles who have chosen to brave the last punch of a redeye before stumbling into work the next morning. All the while trying to pass the last few minutes at the gate playing the slots in the departure concourse. Good times.

Then there were the redemptions ... ah, the North Asia awards. Did the following:
SFO-YVR AC/J
YVR-HKG AC/J - stop
HKG-ZRH LX/J - stop
ZRH-LHR LX/J
LHR-SFO UA/J
... all for 90k miles and $62 in taxes. Yikes!

JDiver

Those were some amazing redemptions! We had some who did some great oneworld explorer awards too, but all that remains only as memories.

I haven't flown US that much, though I flew HP a fair amount. PHX was a good connection onward to Mexico, etc. and more reliable than DFW weather wise. I remember when HP brought those 747-200s in from KLM, I think it was.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

I remember MetroJet and those little red box meals you would get. All Y 732s. I remember a week or so after 9/11 flying BWI/TPA MetroJet about five paxs onboard, with thirds on the red snack boxes. MetroJet was discontinued soon thereafter.

phlwookie

Ah MetroJet. As I recall, its demise was announced in late September 2001 and it was fully gone - as well as all those old 737-200s - by November or December. This was the one of the early domestic "airline in an airline" attempts that tried to compete with LCCs but didn't have low enough per mile costs. UA with Ted and DL with Song also learned that lesson in following years.

Fanjet

Does anyone remember Business Select? (I think that was the name for it). It lasted for a very short time while BA and US were doing the wet-lease cooperation back in the 90's. They had removed the F cabins on 732s, and replaced them with coach seating where the middle seat folded down (like European C class). I flew the product a couple of times. I'm gald it never caught on.

MiamiAirport Formerly NY George

And remembering the all Y class USAir Shuttle. Dedicated 727s then A320s (maybe some other type of a/c also) with the USAir Shuttle logo written on the side. Of course, there is still a Shuttle product but without the dedicated a/c and of course now F When I flew a few months back was surprised that Y still got a free drink and some kind of small snack (I was upgraded to F at the last moment). IIRC around 1999 or 2000 you could get a Saturday r/t for $69. I would fly down from LGA in the AM, spend a day on the Mall/Capital, etc. and fly back in the early evening.

BostonPlanesAndTrains

Video from my last AWE/US takeoff!

BDL Flyer

Can anyone else still hum the music that accompanied the safety video? Believe there was one that was kind of a pan flute - think that one went away after the first bankruptcy (of the 2000's..)

Also the voice "From all of us at US airways, welcome aboard..." and then during the mini-hub at FLL, the safety videos got a mini-version in Spanish that was played after the English version.

A few other throw-backs:

- ART runs -- the $2 mistake fares from ART...
- "GoFares" - aka "BlowFares"
- Cockroaches....
- the "your fault" column in Attache
- Attache

Fittingly, my last US coded flight spent 90+ minutes on the ground in PHL before departing Friday night.

bitburgr

Geez, I do remember that. Has it been that long?

CMK10

I do remember, I have a 1995 OAG and it has ads for it. It existed on a lot of shorthaul east coast routes like LGA-RDU. I remember being on a BS configured plane around that time, they had a moveable bulkhead so the BS cabin could be expanded if needed.

I used to have a .wmv file of that, I rigged my laptop to play that when I started it up instead of the Windows music

Captain Flush

I thought the version with the pan flute came after they stopped using "Traditional Transformation" (mid-00s), and survived until they did away with domestic IFE entirely. At least, the Traditional Transformation version is the one I remember from the days when I started flying US on a regular basis, which would have been ca. 2003-04ish . . . .

I also remember putting away eight or nine XOXOs on a single transcon once or twice back then. Probably not the best idea, but those things were hard to resist, and I'm not exactly known for my self-control.

BWISkyGuy

ALL of the above! "Your Fault" was my favorite. Despite our nickname for the column, I'm sure a lot of us will testify that our experiences with US Consumer Affairs was a LOT different under Deborah Thompson than it has been in the years since.

Regarding the video, how many remember the last USAir video BEFORE the Wolf makeover? The one that began, "As y'all can see, we're in fiiihhhnal prep'ration fir your fliiii'te." It was warm, but certainly didn't fly in the "Impressions of Excellence" generation of the company.

Me too.

PhoenixCMC

Heck, I'm still missing AmericaWest.

But what I miss the most, already, is the "low fare finder" matrix for finding good travel dates/fares when I have some flexibility. AA search makes this much harder. ITA Matrix and Google flights kind of work, but the matrix was better.

Piedmont767

http://www.idhal.com/cockroach/cockroach.htmm

You're welcome!