The way we were, the milk run around the stations on the DC3,from the Isa stopping at each place with a strip,,trying to get home for Xmas from Julia creek,, lots of kids flying,, plane full, Fo arranged for 2 little uns to sit together and gave me their seat on the F27.
Working in Saudi,, very very premmy baby arrived in England,, at Xmas time, planes completely packed,, on wait list in Bahrein, plane was loading,, I spoke to the cabin boss and he said get on and put me in the otherwise empty top deck of the 747 for the trip to LHR,, had an ATC card and would backtrack a 1000 miles to get on a QF flight, rather than BA or some of the other grubby airlines.
All that was over 40 years ago
The rot started when rice biscuits were introduced, and cabin staff refused to give one a cognac and insisted on disgusting Tolley, while Singapore, QF's major competitor, would give you double shots and champagne if you were polite, and tuck you up in a blanket. Quiet nice as anyone who has worked in Saudi will know. Frequent flyer priveleges were slowly reduced and then charged for. One got to know the crews so much so, that on a flight LHR /Barhrein I gave up my seat to a cabin steward who was pissed out of his mind and hid him under my jacket, while I drank at the back, much to the chagrin on the flight services director dressed in his Beijing tram drivers uniform who was looking for him.
Today I really do backtrack 1000 miles to avoid the regimented grim cabin of QF and enjoy Emirates who sometimes give me an unasked-for upgrade and are unfailingly polite and helpful rather like the boys and girls on the 707, and ealry 747 flights
I know that nostalgia is not what it used to be, but they were golden years before the effing bean counters took over all our individualistic endeavours.