Apologies for being unclear. I mean only to be genuinely helpful.

Many (I think) see DC miles as a way of accessing better cabins for the sacrifice of DC miles and very little money - as being great value. But it's only great value compared to the cash price of the seats if you'd been paying. Your comments aren't about redemptions but are about the quality of service per se or more specifically "if I'd been paying". That's different. You've recorded in great detail every defect - and therefore it seems to me you were expecting too much. I'm saying that if you expect less then you'll likely be less disssapointed - and then you'll be the winner.

I'm travelling loads of times each year in C on BMI using my miles and cash. But the seats are pretty much the same as further down the plane; I can reserve my seats by going into Lufty; I often don't use lounges for various reasons and arguably the value I get is fairly small. But it's a bit better than economy and I feel that I'm way ahead. Redemptions plus miles gives you access to this for pretty good value. Next week I'm taking a bunch of my family to VIE all in C for a few days of R&R for what seems to me a very reasonable cost.

It seems to me that you should either travel at the back (using cash and getting better value than wasting DC miles for economy) or expect a lot less bangs per buck when traveling premium on redemption. That was all I meant.