Well, since airlines ALWAYS fly IFR unless they're in Alaska and bushplanes, you can be vectored on your course correctly to your destination. However, since going cross-country requires you to navigate on your own, pilots would use pre-established airways, and track those to their destination. They would also have a certain computer that could calculate a heading that would take you on the correct path of the great circle route. The 727 was indeed, hand-flown more than most modern jets, as there was no altitude bug, and the heading selector would change as they didn't have a slaved compass. There is more, but this shows why pilots go into recurrent training every year!