Freds Dad
Veteran
When I was a kid you didn't have to pay extra for particular seats, they gave you food onboard, and you got a decent luggage allowance. Then again, the price of my ticket to NZ and then back as far as LA (I couldn't afford further) cost £1050. In 1983. Last year my daughter's NZ return cost a bit under £800.
And they used to ask you if you wanted a smoking or non smoking seat.
We travel regularly to Portugal but now have to use either Jet2 or Ryanair, who both like to charge you any extras they can. We have never paid extra to choose our seats and have never been separated on the flight.
We were flying back once from New York and the flight was overbooked and the airline was looking for volunteers to take a flight the following day. We volunteered which resulted in an extra day in NY, our original flight was mid morning and our changed flight was early evening next day. They paid for our hotel, taxi there and back along with $300 compensation. A good result all round.