In case newcomers to this promising thread wonder what Heli-Ice is talking about, a disgraceful post by a certain "captainbritboy" has been removed either by the Mods or the offender himself. In either case quite right too.
There were huge differences in flying in those days, especially long haul. Like today no airline really made any money, but the difference in the 70s was that they didn't even have to try - this being the tail-end of the era of the nationalised flag carriers(apart from rarities such as Laker, British Caledonian, and UTA).
Don't exactly remember all male passengers wearing Homburgs and morning suits, but routings were extraordinary. Never forgotten my first flight Sydney-London in 1972;
Sydney-Perth-Singapore-Bangkok-Tehran-Tel Aviv-Frankfurt-London.
I think we arrived early in 1973.