tuolumne

*Tickets that are different colors with UNITED FIRST and UNITED BUSINESS written on top (total class IMO)
*The classy renditions of Rhapsody during the "It's Time to fly" campaign (Herbie Hancock & Lang Lang dueling piano performance) - United Airlines Heart Commercial
*The name "UAL Corp."
*TED Airbuses with the leather seats. They felt like a premium product when compared to the horrifying new slimline Airbuses. I'd gladly trade F for a more tolerable Y cabin.
*Pentagram design
*Fallon Worldwide
*Apollo
*United ticket storefronts
*Flying domestic SFO-DEN/ORD/IAD in the early/mid 2000's on an internationally configured 777/747 in United First (back when those were the only flat bed seas in the domestic skies)
*The old United First suite/pod (the way the seat moved forward so you could use the fold out desk for work)

SS255

I remember when my (op up) upgrade percentage as a US *G was better than my current CPU upgrade percentage as a 1K.

PushingTin

My flight in 2000 was from SFO and it was a bottle of champagne and some flowers IIRC. I know there was booze...

They then lost our bags for a few hours.....

Tchiowa

I don't remember different colored tickets, but I remember when they would put your boarding passes into an envelope and the envelope was a different color based on class of service. So F passengers got to lord it over the peons even before they had to walk past you in F when boarding the plane.

cerealmarketer

Except on the plane or in the airport

I counted 4 generations of branding at LAX after the merger.

Remember the sunset orange and brown seats? I actually did genuinely like them as an aviation buff. But they were flying right through 2012.

United got the "let's pay the agency to make the collateral look nice" and yes the IPTE mullets were nice up front.

But as for a brand...they failed on every front of consistency.

I do long for the pre-1993 UA, right up until that awful battleship grey corrupted the Saul Bass work. From that point on UA brand was dead to me. Before that, it was truly consistent and a beautiful brand.

Who knew a CO flyer like me had warm feelings about old UA.

You just have to go back further.

flyingnosh

Remember the Flying Nosh!

nikolastojsin

(This is pmCO nostalgia, sorry if inappropriate.)

... when, as newlyweds, my wife and I were able to see each other off all the way to the gate at EWR? And wait to wave when the plane was pushing back?

... when during one of those outings, seeing me waiting to wave, a kind pmCO GA (yes, at EWR!) told me to go board the plane and surprise my wife, just not to stay "too long". So I did. Everybody was already seated, and my wife was duly surprised, excited, and worried, until a (very) kind FA said that I can stay as long as I want, but I would need to leave before they close the door, which she did.

Sounds like a fairy tale today, does not it? Yet it did happen...

goingbananas

I would add:

1) SFO-CDG on the B-777 when they rolled out the first lie flat in F with turndown service

2) "Sweet talking" the person at the check-in counter so they would forget to ask for the Systemwide upgrade coupon!

n198ua

My first ever flight in business on the upper deck of a 747. There were only a few of us, the cabin crew was fantastic. It seemed like a giant private jet. The flight deck crew let me hang out with them in the cockpit for a bit while they were prepping for takeoff. I swear I had this stupid looking grin on my face the entire flight. I'll never, ever forget it.

^

cblaisd

Buying a ticket SJC-SFO-RNO and the first leg was the "South Bay Flyer" bus. Had to be done on paper tickets

Not riding the bus, throwing away the bus coupon, flying SFO-RNO for about 1/3 the price of booking SFO-RNO.

And I loved it that the bus segment was labeled "Connoisseur Class."

zrs70

Loved the following nosh. Loved New York air.

chitownflyer

I certainly do, and I still miss it to this day: United Connection was stellar.

cerealmarketer

How about this memory, from the glory pre-9/11 days of the summer of 2001

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/900734-post24.html

International First Class an embarrassment (except for the seats), domestic first class a 'joke.'

Yes, let's remember where the race to the bottom began.


"This really is the final staw for me.

sent this morning.....

Sir,

As a loyal UAL customer since 1983 (Premier Exec or 1K last 8 years) the decision to discontinue the United Connection system is the final straw in a long list of bad decisions made by UAL management. I use this system extensively to book airfare for myself and my employees and I find the web based system is useless for this effort.

I certainly understand that you have to account to your stockholders but your recent cutbacks in service in so many areas is not to the benefit of your shareholders as I am sure many of your most loyal customers have already abandoned UAL for carriers that provide a far superior product. Your international first class service with the exception of the new sleeper seats is a disgrace and an embarrassment! Your domestic F service has also become a joke. Also, find the person who decided to put the boxes under the F seats thereby removing most of the leg room and fire him!

In light of this decision and other service cuts implemented in the last 6 months I will be booking all future travel for my employees and myself on other airlines resulting in a loss of revenue to UAL of approximately 100K a year.

Just in case this concept has been forgotten by your management team, you do need customers to stay in business, but then again maybe your employees will be willing to pay a few dollars more to ride in "employee (F) class" this might just cover Goodwin's salary for a few months.

Donald XXXXXXX
XXXXXXX XXXXXx, Inc
MP xxxxxxxxxxx"

l etoile

This goes way back to when I was a child, but I remember having a close connection in Honolulu and being met by a van and driven to the stairs of the next plane. This would have been in the mid-'70s. (Now I get it at select airports for GF only.)

Also from childhood, I remember the piano on one of the first 747 flights.

I remember UA playing cards given out in flight.

I remember cockpit visits. Those were the highlight of my flights as a child and they always came about mid-flight with a line down the aisle as everyone waited their turn.

I remember the Now 'N' Zen cookie. (I hated that cookie and begged UA to replace it; funny thing is I now know the founder of that company that made the cookie and call her a friend. I've yet to tell her I complained about those awful cookies.)

I remember receiving bottles of wine from flight attendants as gifts pretty frequently.

tuolumne

come on, can we not try to be positive for once on Flyeryalk? Geeze.

And for what it's worth, the United First suite was a truly world class hard product back in 2000. CO, DL, and NW wouldn't have any flat bed product for another half a decade (not that their small networks could support F). That was a big deal and a real competitive distinction.