Absolutely right!

Thank you for the clarification, guyinmotion. Now I understand better what you were saying. I think we are probably in full (or at least nearly so) agreement. Sorry, I have knee-jerk reaction sometimes to blanket statements such as, "Ryan Air is clearly better than EasyJet, full stop" without further elaboration. OTOH, such provocative statements can be good for stimulating the discussion...@:-)

It is quite true that details, especially at the first-class service level, are important to the experience. Without attention to service detail, at the end of the day, F is often nothing more than a bigger seat compared to C, and that is not for me an appropriate value proposition for a ticket price that often runs into the upper four figures or more.

But which details are important? That is a deeply personal question. And there are probably almost as many answers to that question as there are posters here. For me, getting quickly through security and passport control and to a quiet, relaxing location and/or to my on-board seat is important. The food, as long as it is nutritionally balanced and does not poison me, is quite OK, and normally in an airport lounge, I am just as happy to serve myself from a buffet as to be waited on hand and foot (e.g., I was once scolded by the attendant in the TG F lounge in BKK for attempting to serve myself). As for Ms. N1003U, she likes her water glass to be kept always full, and anything short of terabit-per-second internet bandwidth in the lounge is an insult.

The problem then for the airline is that to keep all of us overly-picky, self-entitled F passengers happy (), they need to make sure a semi-infinite number small, personal service details are flawlessly executed, every day, regardless of whether they are important to the passenger or not (just in case that one of two of them are). Service that is detail-oriented, efficient, and highly personalized is very difficult**. For those whose detailed expectations are by chance met, the experience is wonderful. For those who find some expected service details lacking, the experience is not so great. And since expectations are dynamic, it gets even harder to impress regular customers.

Anyway, thanks for responding to my challenge. I appreciate the exchange.

**"very difficult" does not mean "impossible" (except perhaps during polite conversations in Japan ).
Service that is detail-oriented, efficient, and highly personalized can be executed well with well-trained, competent employees (which LH has in abundance), who are motivated and empowered to use their good judgement and common sense when called for (which is NOT generally the case IME at LH), and who have access to appropriate information tools to make sure they can personalize, customize, and optimize the customer experience, especially for premium passengers (which LH could do, with some effort on the part of management, if they chose to empower their employees and give them the tools they need). Such service does cost a bit to provide, but when provided well, it has the strange side effect that people will often pay more for it...@:-)