Yesterday I flew on United fom IAD to LHR, and I sat in one of the rear facing seats. I didn't really notice it to be any differant that their forward facing counterparts, but it got me thinking; what, if any, is the benefit to this layout?
Personally, I found it quite odd as did many other passengers.
Again, they're no less comfortable or anything like that, it's just an odd experience.

I dunno, to me it seems like a cock up, why not just make them all face the same direction.

As a side note, thank god I wasn't in one of the middle rows where the seats are in groups of 4 (2-4-2). In my humble opinion 4 seats in the middle is just too dense for a business class cabin. A 2-3-2 configuration would be much more acceptable. But that's a rant for another day