cerealmarketer

And it went south pretty quickly after 2001...what was served then is pretty much what we're getting today, with better seats

AirlineMeals.net - Airline catering * the world's largest website about airline catering, inflight meals and special meals

Maybe seat38 wants to bid on these UA menus - there's a mid 90s Connoisseur one in there. i think Connoisseur was basically 8 or 10 years early to late 90s.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/UNITED-AIRL...-/202649312309

N174UA

UA inherited the L10-11's from PA in 1986, but only had them for a very short time. They were used mainly to/from MNL, but also Japan and Korea. UA didn't hold on to them for very long at all. This video is likely from 1986, at SEL, which was the airport for Seoul back then. ICN didn't open until 2001.

Bear96

Yep those were my F/A days. We had to change into "serving uniforms" after boarding & takeoff before starting the inflight meal & beverage service. 'Connoisseur Class' had Godiva chocolates after the main meal / dessert / after-dinner liqueurs (and also had four hot towel services - (1) after takeoff / pre-cocktail; (2) after cocktail / pre-main meal; (3) pre-second meal; and (4) post-second-meal / pre-landing). Economy had printed menus and also multiple hot towel services. First had real caviar - but still no truly flat seats like we know today.

Now I am a couple of lives later, post-F/A days, and fortunate enough to be able to travel for fun and pay for domestic F and int'l biz.

Don't get me wrong; the old days were a LOT of fun. But overall I think things are better now. The nostalgic images from the 1960s or whenever on Youtube are silly because those show Economy class when it essentially cost $3000 in today's money for domestic transcon or JFK-LHR, not the $300 fares of today.

People who pine for the old international days don't seem to be aware those flights were mostly in 707s - think 727s but with four engines instead of three for those who are not familiar - which had the equivalent of today's domestic F seats, really no IFE (pneumatic headsets, anyone?), super loud engine noise, and lots of other miseries (like smoking???) which would be totally unacceptable today and which someone like me (and most of you) could never hope to afford. Yes the 747s came around at some point but as someone else pointed out those "lounges" lasted for about a nanosecond before being replaced with high-density seating (if on the main deck) or cargo / baggage stowage (if below deck - like the lower-lobe galleys, though it took a while longer for those relics to be worked out of the system) once fuel prices went above like $0.10/gallon.

So today gimme my true lie-flat seat and a gazillion IFE choices, and a quieter plane, and the ability to buy that for only like $3K for transatlantic in 2019 money if you are a bit flexible. Yes please.

And don't even get me going about safety & reliability. And lounges. And schedule choice. Light years ahead now. (Did I mention SAFETY? How can you put a price on the most important thing? To get home to your loved ones? We are kind of in a golden era now even though few like to admit it.)

BTW this is a GREAT thread! Very nostalgic! ^ to the OP.

AlreadyThere

To summarize:

(a) What's better now: premium-class seats, IFE.
(b) What was better then: just about everything else.

And yes, airports had lounges then, too. I bought lifetime memberships for what 2 years' dues would cost these days. Inflation doesn't quite account for that difference.

WineCountryUA

forgot a few key items
Travel time, reach of non-stops (long, thin routes)
Prices
Safety
lack of smoking
environmental impact / passenger (fuel efficiency)

747FC

I'm curious about your perceptions related to the professionalism and customer service orientation of today's F/As vs those back in your days of service. Might you share your thoughts?

wpcoe

The kimono-clad ladies were not F/As, they were "Internationals Service Representatives" (or Interpreters, as most people called them.) They were forbidden to do F/A duties (union Scope Clause rules...) and couldn't even pick up a dirty glass. They were a UA creation and basically they did Japanese announcements, assisted the F/A crew with language translations, and for a while on the HNL flights took inflight photos of Japanese honeymooners. The photos were placed in a nice little card stock folder and presented to the couple. I don't believe PA ever had ISRs/Interpreters. They relied on language-speaking F/As (LQFAs).

Connoisseur Class was simply the trademark for UA's business class service for a few years. It was a tray service, but served in courses similar to Polaris.

seat38a

Interesting. So one person was paid to just wander the plane to translate. Would never happen in this day in age with cost cutting. Would probably throw google translate at ya instead. Man just have been a nice job to have. Was Japan the only one to have this position? No one dressed in traditional clothing of other countries?

wpcoe

Yeah, pretty sure the main reason that job was eliminated was economics. A few of them later became F/As when the ISR job was gone. I can't remember if the HKG flights had ISRs or not. I don't remember them, but ... maybe?

A side note about the Polaroid cameras they carried on the NRT-HNL flights: They were required to turn in the empty film cartridges upon return to NRT. On some flights it was difficult to catch the honeymooners awake since the departures were in the evening with sometimes really short flight times (5h30m wan't unheard of in the winter) and the folks wanted to get to sleep ASAP after dinner. So, the ISRs would hang out in the galleys (lower deck at that time) and take tons of crew photos to use up the film.

5khours

I'd forgotten about that. AA also had an F Lounge in the UD on the 747. Flew it once in March '79. I was the only one who went up there.

5khours

Not economics. The union killed the position. I knew quite a few of the ISRs. Both NW and UA had them. They were hated by the U.S. based
FAs because they were non-union and replaced some of the regular FA positions on the most popular routes.

seat38a

Wait, but I thought they were not FA's. Wouldn't NW and UA still have to have the same legal number of FA's regardless of the ISR's?

dilanesp

A few airports had lounges, and you didn't have access to these big networks of alliance lounges. Again, MUCH better now.

findark

This is definitely the one thing that gets me about some of the nostalgia, especially for "when Y was a nice experience". If you want to pay regulated Economy prices and get a decent flight, you still can.. it's called today's premium cabin

That being said, one thing that really depresses me about flying these days is how almost no one thinks it's special or magical anymore. We don't need to keep dressing up in coat and tie, but it's just sad to see pax in a spectrum between a belligerent, aggressive "come at me, do your worst, United" attitude and curling up in a ball praying it will be over one minute faster. People dress down to fly, try to sleep every second of the way, and now there is a deep-rooted cultural expectation that the flying experience is one of the most miserable times of your life rather than the excitement of a special trip. Pax used to be happier, and in even in premium cabins it's a very transactional "let's get this done with quickly" experience (admittedly also in keeping with the ever-faster pace of modern life).

dilanesp

This is exactly why I have disdain (which I sometimes express here) for travelers who are unwilling to spend money. Basically, my view of business is that if everyone insists on paying the lowest possible price and never spending money on extras, you will absolutely get a terrible, lowest common denominator product every time. One of my other interests besides travel is horse racing, and horse racing fans get extremely mad that, e.g., Del Mar charges $10 to get in and $18 for a margarita. But you know what, the kind of place that charges $18 for a margarita gives you a far better experience than the kind of place that charges you $4 for one. This is true of bars too. You can drink at lowest common denominator bars if you want to, but they are going to be seedy, dilapidated, and full of rude, awful people. Whereas if you drink at a cocktail lounge where you pay significantly more for the drinks, the place and the people will be much nicer.

Air travel COULD be much nicer. But it's not going to be as long as people insist on choosing Spirit Airlines to save $15 on an airfare. That's a world where passengers may be happy that they get the bargain but miserable when they actually experience the service.