i recall flying CP Air (owned by the famous railway company) on my first overseas trip to Vancouver, and then Varig down to Lima. The return air fares were about A$1600, which the RBA 'inflation calculator' tells me (for a basket of goods and services, not air fares) was about A$5000 in 2019. It must have been funded from working when I had time off from university.
Then we used airlines such as AeroPeru and others (including a Cessna as the only two passengers: can't recall how we booked that) ) to get around on sectors we couldn't do by train, or, less often, by bus. All these airlines are defunct IIRC. Some of the rail lines have long been pulled up, or only see freight trains today.
The biggest change compared to 2020 was that back then, I always arrived in a town (in Oz or overseas) and looked for a suitably priced hotel. Only once, in Europe, did I find 'house full' signs, yet today (pre COVID-19) it'd be often difficult to do this, such is the rise of OTAs.
Inflation was rife at the time. I had to pay cash for an AeroPeru ticket with a thick wad of notes. Shamefully, I pushed my way in to the counter to obtain the last two seats. That's not something I've ever since done.
Prior to that my first domestic air trip was on Ansett from ADL to MEL. Hardly exciting to anyone today but since I'd been interstate by train (including on the forward journey by 'The Overland', a great train) or less frequently by bus a few times, it was an (expensive) novelty. I'd have to find it but would it have been on a 727? I travelled quite a lot on those: 'real aircraft.' Airfares then were incredibly restrictive, especially those APEX return fares that required a Saturday night away. Unthinkable today for domestic air, although standby fares seemed to work well and I don't recall having much difficulty being found a seat when I used these, but also may not have been travelling at peak periods.
Agree that the Golden Wing Club was excellent, far less crowded than many airlines' lounges in 2020. From what I recall, the food was quite good (but hasn't stuck in my memory.) However the orange hostie and stewards' uniforms are recollected more easily.
One other odd feature of Ansett (though classy) when in J was the analogue wall clock, always on the right, hitting one in the face if in the first row., Sir Peter Abeles may have insisted these be there.
Compass I and II were quite good, and at times if one bought a full fare whY ticket, AN (Ansett) would automatically upgrade you to J, even domestically. That was when the fare wars with Compass were at their high point.
At other times it was interesting to travel on 'milk runs' such as Melbourne to Sydney to Manila to Karachi to Abu Dhabi to London. The B747 from Manila to London (PAL) had proper sleeper beds on its upper deck. I don't think they lasted long as they were expensive to operate.
At other times I used B747SPs, one trip I believe was EVA Air. These were unusual aircraft, but reliable.
And speaking of reliability, JAL was as good 20 years ago as it is now, even if by today's standards the aircraft were dated.
TAA (Ta-tah) was also OK, though I adjudged Ansett to be superior. It fascinated me how it and 'Chance It' departed within five minutes of one another and apparently battled to get the '00' departure (slots.) I retain domestic and international air printed timetables from those years, far nicer than looking up times on a smartphone, tablet or PC.