ryan182

this whole thread is very depressing, especially since I was far too young to get to experience any of the glory that used to be.

britney

As a kid I remember the pilots during the 70's and into the 80's wearing their brown uniforms and the flight attendants wearing their blue aloha shirts and muumuus to/from Hawaii. I believe it was called Royal Hawaiian Service (?) in their 747's, DC10's, and even DC8's.

I also remember eating full meals in Y on the SEA-SFO-SEA runs I did in the 737 in the early-mid 90's before Shuttle by United existed.

Just some of the many wonderful memories I have of UA of yesterday....

ORD2World

I am pretty sure the C came from Connoisseur class. UA was among the first of the US airlines to "brand" business class with a name, to make it something customers sought out. In the go-go days of the rising tech stocks, etc., people were willing to pay for these sorts of things. No where to go but up, etc. FA were even given audio cassette tapes, to ensure they pronounced the names on the various bottles of wine correctly. In HNL in 1992, UA even flew out a VP for a wine and food tasting seminar (two days!!) for the FAs.

I cannot recall when the word Connousseur dropped out from UA's lexicon, but the C is there to remind us.

BTW, we can go back to the "good olds days" described above for service anytime we desire. Solution is very simple: triple ticket prices, and we'll be close to paying all those costs, which of course will include the price of fuel these days.

prestonh

Ah, what mixed emotions on this thread. I made 1K in 2000, so I have a few years of 'glory'. My faves:

-the LAX-MEL service direct and through AKL. The AKL NZ lounge was spectacular.
-I too remember and miss when they handed out SBUX frappacino's for free?
-MCO-ORD mainline and F service
-complimentary, automatic F upgrades for 1k's on the shuttle.
-1K lounges. They automatically reaccomodated (and actually paged you as you are getting off your flight) in the case of irrops.
-The UA desk in the Sydney Sheraton/Stamford hotel which would even check your bags in and do advance ticketing. UA needs to know how valuable that service was!!!
-Ansett's cooperation with UA...they had an amazing thing going.
-When they introduced the 'gold BP'. You would have thought you were a god as you were boarding.
-The nasuea and lightheadedness I got the first time boarding TED.

iceman77_7

I'm booked on an ANA flight in January in business class and .bomb lists it as Connoisseur.

jyatlantic

This thread makes me feel very, very young.

I mean, I vaguely remember my domestic flights in the mid 90s as a small child, but do remember international Y and its nice little amenities in the late 90s. My first premium experience was circa 2005 It's a shame I missed out.

valleyankee

I remember when we got free meals and hated them......

I remember when you had to pay for a headset......

I remember being served ice cream pops mid flight....

SFO_FT

The use of "C" class pre-dates UA's use of the "Connoisseur" brand and has been around ever since the introduction of biz class. "C" stands for commercial ... as in commercial class. Oh, wait ... maybe it's corporate. One or the other. "B" was already being used, so QF, PA, TW and others decided to use "C" instead. J class, which some carriers adopted instead, was defined as "premium business class" .. and sometimes was priced slightly higher than C class.

UnitedConnection

Two words: United Connection.

For those that don't know, it was this amazing reservations software that was truly ahead of its time. It was in the days of dial-up, and it dialed into a special UA number connected to the reservations servers. From there you could book flights, hotels, rental cars, manage your itineraries, select seats, you name it. Basically everything .bomb is supposed to do, expect United Connection actually did it.
Anyone still have a copy of the program? I'd love just to see the interface again...

Does anyone miss the old safety videos too? There was something about hearing that cheesy version of rhapsody in blue followed by "Welcome aboard, by now you've stowed all of your carryon baggage...." before each flight. Oh, the nostalgia!

bmr12

A good topic. I've been 1P or 2P since about 1989. My early years I flew out of SEA and then ORD, but I've lived and flown out of DEN for the past 15 years. Some things I remember:

• Hourly service between ORD and EWR and LGA, EWR on the half-hour and LGA on the hour
• 500 mile upgrades arrived randomly in your paper statements
• One could buy more upgrade certificates for $25/500 miles.
• You couldn't submit a request ahead of time to use your 500 milers. I remember pulling off the highway and using a payphone to call the Premier/Premier Exec line at exactly 24 or 48 hours prior to put in my upgrade request (no cell phones either, and it was first-come, first served).
• Generally, there were hot meals in coach around mealtimes. I used to dread the "pizza" meal on my most common flight (DEN-EWR, flight 362, which used to depart DEN at 3:30 or 3:40 pm). The pizza was a wad of dough in one of those little white ceramic trays with some cheese, sauce, and a couple of slices of pepperoni on top. Accompanied by a "salad" of three or four pieces of iceberg with a couple of shredded carrots on top, and a little tiny piece of chocolate-type cake with white frosting. Same meal every time, every day, every month. Ugh.
• Experiencing my first international op-up on a consolidator ticket IAD-AMS. Business class then had 38" seat pitch and was basically identical in seat configuration to today's domestic first, but with a foot rest and better food. I was ecstatic!
• Sitting in F in a 737 and having a flight attendant just leave the open bottle of wine on my tray table "you're the only one drinking this..."
• Flying a very delayed flight EWR-DEN on a 727 (which had the ability to cruise at significantly higher speeds). Typical flight time was about 4 hours, but we went fast enough to knock it down to 3.
• Always scouting out for the DC-10 on domestic legs to improve my upgrade chances (almost certain on a flight in the lower 48).
• Storing my garment bag in the mechanical closet behind the big video screen on DC-10s. You'd hook your bag to the rail, and then when it was full, the flight attendant would push a button and the whole thing would lift up into closet.
• Scoring the exit row seats at any time as a 1P--this was back before E+, so it made a huge difference.
• Having a drawer full of 5,000 mile certificates. No on-line or electronic storage of mileage--everytime you hit 20,000 miles in your account for any reason, you'd get 4 x 5,000 mile certificates mailed to you, with some vaguely useful car rental and hotel certificates.
• Taking said certificates to my local city-ticket office to cash them in for my first international first class award. Back then, you could book the 2nd seat in business or first for half the price of the first, so I booked two seats DEN-AKL-MEL, and SYD-DEN in international F for 180,000 miles.
• Making sure to use the oldest of those certificates because they each had their own expiration date, not renewable by flying or account activity in 18 months
• Calling the interactive voice response system after every trip to make sure my mileage had been credited since there was no way to view it online--only paper statements mailed months later.

That's enough for now.

bmr12

Ooh, ooh! Put that in my list! I think I have the CD somewhere and some 3.5" floppies. That was great for the two or three years it was in its prime.

PanHam

Sigh, in 20 years on FT (), we'll have to answer the same questions, and talk about how we remember when one did not have to pay $24.00 for the economy meal on international flights, and how we fought for status so we would not have to talk to the international call center.

I shudder to think what UA will become in a few years . . .

UA_Flyer

Here are some pictures of what it used to be:

Bring it Back United!

OskiBear

To the OP -

I'm sure I'm quite a bit older...but when I was at Cal, I recall a UA City Ticket Office in downtown Berkeley. Right where Shattuck does the funny jog at University.

I was regularly doing the SFO/OAK - LAX - SFO/OAK flights for four years. Always used to schedule a flight at the right time to catch a meal at no extra cost!

Oh, and even in late 2002, I fly LAX-NRT in Y - and we received nice menus (it did occur to me at the time that it seemed a bit extravagant in Y).

fORD

That is unreal -- it's crazy to see how they marketed air travel as a luxurious experience. As for now, ha!