Flying on United reminds us of how far we have fallen from the Jet Age. The joke is, the Devil was flying into a demon convention in Vegas, but he refused to fly United, because “they only had coach, and United coach is worse then Hell.”

Incredibly, some of the old Pan Am crew still fly on United, which bought their international routes decades ago. On a recent flight from Dulles to Heathrow, I was fortunate to be served by former Pan Am flight attendants. The experience clarified that the lack of service is a choice, not an inevitability. I believe the tech industry can bring it back across many other industries. But first, let me relate my experience.

As we prepared to fly, I found a warped cover in my sleeping pod seat. I had to bang it hard to get it to close. Over walked an attractive older stewardess. She sat on the edge of my seat, crossing her thin legs. Her skirt hiked up as she leaned in and said, sweetly: “We used to carry a rubber mallet on our Pan Am jets, so we could whack these things shut.” Needless to say, I was smitten. She talked about her time at Pan Am. She showed me some Polaroids she had photoed into her iPhone. I saw a charming 20-something in the signature outfit of Pan Am — the cute hat, the white gloves, the light blue uniforms. She still carried the training with her — she walked gracefully and seemed to be wearing those white gloves. She looked into space as she recalled various adventures. Clearly she had loved it.

She and two others had been crewing together for 44 years (since they were 21). Incredible service from them. The vision of what United could have been …

I related a story to her from a decade ago. I was on a BA flight from Tel Aviv to LHR that had a 4 hour layover before connecting to United to get back to SFO. That day, we left late due to fog and arrived with only a 45 minute layover, and had to park the 747 on the tarmac with trams to bring us to the terminal. They said all transfers should walk to the front of the plane where two special buses waited. We all did except one, and the asinine BA ground crew waited until the whole plane had deplaned before allowing us on the special buses. They had 2 buses! They could have loaded all of us with short connections on one bus and left early! I got to the transfer area with 10 minutes or so to spare. Total madhouse. My traveling companion got to the desk before me, but his seat was long gone. People were anxious, voices were raised. I got to the front and they said (rather loudly): “Oh, Mr Davidson, we have been waiting for you. Business class filled up, but we reserved a seat in First class for you.” Utter silence surrounded me as they escorted me through the terminal to the gate and made sure I boarded. I first said to my pal, “I don’t want to leave you behind,” and he replied, “You idiot, take it! It’ll be easier for me to get a good seat tomorrow.”

That was the old Pan Am service in action. The ground crew at Heathrow were former Pan Am. They still carried forward the Service Mentality that had made their airline so beloved.