If you like travel then you are probably going to be seeing the inside of quite a few of them.
The problem is that the cattle class of most airlines are not really designed for grumpy 6'4'', 100kg Aussies with personal space issues - especially on long haul flights. Add to that a budget travel mentality, and well, the choices for luxury air travel start to dwindle pretty quickly.
Consequently, I am pretty picky (when I can be) about deciding which airlines to go with.
Let me say from the outset, that Korean Air does not float my boat. It's not just the seat width which gives me flashbacks of childhood nightmares in which I am going down a waterslide which gets progressively narrower(anyone remember the scene from Tank Girl?), it's also the funky spicy Korean dishes which means the chances of you staying out of the toilets (which are designed for circus folk sized people) on your 16 hour flight to London are slim to none.
Airlines from Middle Eastern countries generally scare me a little too. It's not the planes themselves, but rather the fact that the entire cabin will burst into cheers and applause when the plane touches down as if landing safely were such a rare event that it deserves its own cheer squad. I mean, isn't the whole idea that you get there safely?
Japan Airlines is surprisingly good - the cleanliness, service and good food makes up for the fact that the seats are a little on the small side.
By far the best, biggest and most comfortable seats I have encountered were on an Aeroflot aircraft. Of course their reputation for falling out of the sky might count against them, but really... what price comfort? (In reality, their fleet has been upgraded since the bad old days) Of course, large seats don't protect against the eventiality that a large Russian woman will buy three of them, lie down and put her feet in your lap for a 12 hour journey (yes, that did happen to me).
All up it's really not a big deal, but when you can choose a slightly more comfortable airline for not much extra cost, it is well worth forking out.
