Between 8 and 12 years old myself and my brother flew many trans-Atlantic flights in Super VC 10s, and 707s and DC8s. The VC 10 is still my favourite airliner by far.
As for airlines in about 1984 I flew to Belgrade and Pula, Yugoslavia and back in 4 tired Jugoslave Air Tours DC 9s. Departure time over their was never more than an abstract concept vaguely related to "not before". The local name for the airline:
Joke About Time.