As someone with close to fifty years of flying under my belt, most of it for a living, and the last eleven or so years of it enduring 36 hour international transits, I hope you never have to endure those. I get your points, and I agree with many. However, here's what I've noticed, as well: nowhere in any industry is social strata more rigidly enforced than in airlines, in how they stratify by how much we're willing to pay for the courtesy of boarding in front of the hoi polloi, take up all available overhead space across three aisles because we HAVE to jam our coats up there despite being told not to, and generally behave like cretins for hours because after all, we're on vacay, right?

I've learned a few things, as airlines have shrunk their seats even as humans have vastly expanded (which is part of what you're seeing, it's also the airline's fault) and people get noisier. I take a noise blocking device, good headphones and Ambien, and eye covers. On most flights I am out of it. Of COURSE I wake up to find that I have drooled onto my shirt but frankly at my age, I care? I also pay extra for more room, and I am nearly always nursing an injury so I get to get on board even in front of First Class Fuck You Peons.

I do adventure travel for a living. I suffer the flights there and back. They are not part of the fun, and the folks who make up steerage often prove why the curtains are pulled between the classes, if you will. Because I'm not rich, the best I can do is a few extra hundred and sit close to the front, and a little extra leg room for very long legs. And first dibs on the toilet.

I doubt it will ever improve, not while Boeing is run by Jack Welch screw the client feed the stockholder leader-cretins. However, certain airlines, and Lufthansa is among them, are well- run, well-staffed, and they don't tolerate bad behavior. That said I head back to Africa next May, and am planning accordingly. I'm considering installing spikes on my elbows.