JDT1955

My wife and I have recently moved from Cleveland to Chicago (not because of the dehubbing, though that added extra impetus), so I've been sorting through lots of old files. Deep in the recesses, I found the menu from my very first TPAC 1st flight, SFO-Osaka (before KIX!) in April 1992. Depressing to see how standards have fallen. Some of the highlights were the Beluga caviar ("Please, have some more. We have to throw it out when we land."); the five (!) hors d'oeuvre served between the caviar and the salad; the choice (from a cart) of Chateaubriand w/ Sauce Bernaise, Chicken Teppan w/ Ginger Sauce, Paupiette of Dover Sole, and Prawns w/ Yellow Chives; then real cheese sliced from the cart; choice of desserts, etc, etc. For drinks, we of course started with a 1985 Dom Perignon followed by Joseph Drouhin Pouilly Fuisse, a 1984 Chateau Duhart-Milon Pauillac, Johnny Walker Blue Label, Remy Martin XO, and on and on...them's was the days! Enjoy...and reminisce!

zrs70

Wow!

Now, just imagine you were on that flight in 1992, and someone gave you a crystal ball, showing you bells and whistles of the 2014 seats, with inflight entertainment, wi-fi (perhaps), and route network.

Which wins?

ORDnHKG

However, if you look at the breakfast service, it was still the old sUA crap omelette or fruit plate ! They just couldn't add a 3rd choice Japanese option even back in 1992 ! Most airlines have 3 options for F even for the 2nd meal.

P.S. I can't really see the main course, the writing is rather blurry, did it have the sUA signature bento box that all the sUA FTers love ?

kettle1

I agree on some UA flts. You forgot to mention the bad today = no wi-fi, no inflight entertainment, garbage (or no) food, RJ's, good to poor service, full planes, no pillow, no blanket, slim line seats, charging for booze in International Y, ff program changes, etc, etc. It depends on the flight.

Go back to the 1970's / 1980's in FC. ^ Even in 1992 I used to receive a full meal service LAX-RNO in F.

I agree 100% about the route network. ^

We also have E+ today, but in 1992 the entire Y had a few more inches (E+).

Times change. The good, the bad, the ugly. Grab a crystal ball - what will it be like 10, 20 years from now?

rufflesinc

Airbus just patented those bicycle seats.

endrond

I'm curious about the seat on your 1992 flight (that was before I ever flew up front).

Despite all the reductions in soft product quality, I'd happily take the current businessfirst seat over anything that's not flat.

E.g., I love LH's F food in the air and on the ground, but LH's soft product + a barcalounger would be much inferior to UA's current soft & hard product in businessfirst, at least for me.

cerealmarketer

Not so sure on that one. E+ was introduced in 1999...and pitch was already 31" in Economy before it was installed.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...s-seating.html

As elegant as the menu looks...I wonder how they handled variety for frequent travelers. It was a lot of chateaubriand back in the day, but I guess the other dishes rotated.

danhunterpost

I think he might have been stating that regular Y back in 1992 had as much room as E+ now.

channa

Kind of like how domestic Y back then had the same or better food as domestic F has now.

zrs70

Also keep in mind that even in the good ol days, people pubicly chided airline food.

kettle1

That is what I meant. Up until 1990 you also had smoking sections, and in the 70's the whole plane was a smoking section.

Damn, I miss the good old days. The "stewardess" would light your cigarette at 35,000 feet. Now that was service! ^

Back in the 50's I think cigarettes came provided with your meal. (Sorry, am I too young to be on a plane from back then).

TWA Fan 1

1990's overseas First Class.Although this image is from a BA 747, the layout was fairly standard. Notice the seats and the leg-room, which is slightly greater than today's standard domestic FC.


First Class on a current UA 747. While hardly best-in-class, every seat is fully lie-flat, with up to 78" of seat pitch.

Hard product in overseas premium classes has improved dramatically over the past few decades, culminating in the current best-in-class of Etihad's "The Residence" suites in their A380 first class cabins...



Where things are getting worse is at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, where the latest development is Airbus's patent of the "bicycle seat."

JDT1955

As I recall, it was a very exaggerated barcalounger that did not QUITE go flat, but after the Dom, Bordeaux, and XO Remy Martin, I had no problem sleeping! The first lie-flat I recall was early '98 in a UA first class suite on SFO-HKG on one of the last flights into the white knuckle Kai Tak airport. It was also the first time I'd had noise canceling headphones, which I found an amazing step forward.

As for the other objects in the crystal ball, I think the (sometimes) WiFi would have been the most amazing. Only 22 years ago, but the web was just a glimmer! Hard to believe just how much it has taken over our lives.

It was also clear that upgrades were not being handed out for free, as there was only one other person in the front end of the 747. It was also a different era in medicine, as I was being flown first class by a medical company to give lectures around Asia...pharma rules have killed all that.

And no, no bento box. Maybe it was a special order, as I saw it on many subsequent flights to Japan. The chicken teppan with ginger sauce was the closest thing to an Asian entree.

Overall, I'm happy with the technical progress we've seen, but it's not like it has cost the airlines much (small flat screen TVs being cheaper than old CRTs). It's just a shame that they have so devalued the soft product at a time that so many international carriers have managed to maintain it.

5khours

I'll take the flat bed seat over the caviar every time and a million ways to Sunday. International premium commercial travel is so much better now than it ever was in the 80s or 90s.

CCIE_Flyer

What, no Dewars White Label????

Oh, scotch that horrid hadn't been conceived of even in Y at that time, my bad.