Explain? Remember i'm from wooden shoe country, w're somewhat more direct over here ;). Follow up after being surprised was 'May i have one, please'. She returned to the front galley to grab one and hand it over to me :)

This was SOP ~1980.

I sometimes think those of us who flew extensively from late 60's to ~1988 are at a disadvantage. We know flying doesn't have to be as miserable as it is today!

Lack of menu as a result of pre-ordering suggests to me that the Purser actually reviewed service items/issues before pax boarded as opposed to text messaging and Facebooking or my fav: hammering away at the ice bags for thirty minutes... I would take this attention to detail as an harbringer of good service in flight, but I could be speculating too much. Hope it was in fact good service in flight :)

It was also a lot more expensive back then.

Eh, that's really more of a myth that the airline industry has done a great job of propagating. When you include what air travelers actually have to spend to travel, (luggage fees, buying their own meals, often paying for a coach seat assignment with enough room to move, outrageous change fees, call center fees, etc) it's really not that different, especially if you comparing legacy airline fares today to that time (and not including ULCC).

Not when you consider the 95% rate for free upgrades to First class

There were no free upgrades to first class in 1980. Giving away the front cabin for free was a development later on (and some would argue eventually led to devaluations of what it used to be, though that is up for debate).

There were no FF programs until 1981, but some airlines did informally upgrade their known very frequent customers. Fir example, I know a guy who flew Swiss almost every week between Europe and Boston and was upgraded most of the time (when space was available).

In the early 1970s, I paid $500 JFK-HNL-BOS. In 2002, I paid $500 JFK-HNL-JFK. There was a bit of inflation over that period.

In fact, coach fares in the 1970s + inflation are approximately equal to F fares (at least FCM fares) today. And the seats and service are similar, too.

You mean you got a really low fare to Hawaii during one of the worst economic moments in airline history (2002)?. Please read my whole post to understand the point I was making. Yes, base fares have often not kept up with inflation, but overall cost of travel certainly has. Somehow the airlines are making record profits, and it's not just from cramming more seats in coach.

Also, I did a search for a flight on random days in January 2019, JFK-HNL. The lowest coach fare is $950, or $850 for basic economy. Comfort +, which is much closer to the product that you flew in the 70's, is $1327. And you still have to pay extra to check luggage, plus huge fees for any changes. It's probably still a little cheaper to fly today, but it's not dramatically cheaper like some claim.

According to the CPI Inflation Calculator, $500 in 1973 is equivalent to $2,763.04 today. The lowest First Class fare I found next January is $2,190. Most days are around $2,500. There's no extra fee for luggage in First, and changes weren't free back in 1973 either.

Not correct. United had a program that started in 1972 (the airline had already maintained customer data for decades at that point so the airline finally mined it), Texas International's program started in1979, and Western's started the following year.

American and multiple other airlines founded their respective programs in 1981 and 1982.

As a sidenote, Pan Am was late to the frequent flyer table with World Pass but the airline was widely recognized for the program's innovations, namely that hitting a specified threshold would give the member an actual 30-day World Pass supported by PAA's network. The initial enrollment solicitation mailing included a complimentary domestic round-trip ticket good for six months with no blackout dates or other conditions aside from enrolling in World Pass. The response rate on this mailing (to 80,000 people) was possibly a record for any DM piece, roughly 50%.

Well ...., we deserve it, we keep this ....ing airline in business, not the economy and award flyers blowing their amex bonus all at once on some lame ... trip to paris or some other generic "dream vacation" spot.