Back in those days, speaking as BOAC cabin crew we used to be rostered a 3 'weeker' about twice a year. Routes would include:
LHR - THR 48 hrs
THR - HKG 48 hrs via BOM
HKG - SYD 48 hrs via MNL
SYD - MEL 24 hrs
MEL - SIN 48hrs via PER
SIN - SYD 24 hrs via PER
SYD - HKG 48 hrs
HKG - BOM 72 hrs via BKK
BOM - BAH 48 hrs
BAH - LHR
Duty days were rarely longer than 10 hours back on the 747-136's
There was one nasty trip LHR - FCO - DEL/CCU where there were 3 meal services depending on the time of day. It then went on to HKG and SYD/MEL Sometimes if you got to BAH on the last leg you could have been turned round and do the same again.
Room parties were the norm on those trips with plenty of 'flasks' full of booze floating around. Girls usually went to a certain jewellers in HKG to order rings and bangles that they never declared on the crew dec at LHR. Many male crew had shirts suits jackets etc made to measure and this was before credit cards.
Allowances were always paid by the hotel or by the Duty Manager in local currency. Typical hotels included the Gulf in BAH, Cosmopolitan (motel)in Bondi, Some dump we nicknamed 'Crossroads' in MEL. The Excelesior in HKG and the Oberoi in BOM/DEL. Teheran was fun, we used to stay at the International which according to locals was the old morgue, however the union got us moved to the Hilton which was out of town. A great place to 'slip'. Quite often we would passenger to BKK on a QF 707 and pick up a trip from there. There were 'C bird' trips which involved paxing to and from the Orient. Again a 3 week trip with different crews but no one liked those because you missed out on Gulf allowances as you 'ate' on the aircraft. These trips coincided with Chinese and Indian based crews.
Flight deck would do similar trips but on a 3 week trip you met 4/5 different crews. By the time you got back to LHR you made some good friends, however you rarely saw them again unless you kept in close contact.
Calling home from India usually meant booking a call in order to wait for the satellite to be in the right position. I believe Portishead was used as HF comm back in those days. As for relationships that's another story!
One of the most lucritive trips was a 15 day LHR - ANC - HND - ANC - LHR. It was a nackering trip because of the time changes, but I was lucky enough to do one over Christmas and New Year which meant you either celebrated it twice or not at all depending where you were. The one trip which the 747 missed ou on was the SYD through the west. That was exclusively for the mini fleet (VC-10/707)