Originally Posted by
Sixth Freedom
I respectfully disagree. The fact that the middle seat is empty changes the game so much that the seat is, in effect, no longer the same. I personally find the whole CE experience so much better than ET (although my frame of reference is actually UK Domestic) that it might as well be a different seat.
The British Rail Mark 4 carriage is 8' 11" wide (source:
wikipedia 
) and the Airbus 320 cabin width is 12' 2" (source:
wikipedia ), so the 320 is approximately 36.4% more useable width and an extra 33% of seats across (i.e. from three to four) makes Club Europe on the planes entirely similar to First Class on the trains.
My point is that the seat is differentiated on the train between F and standard. Same applies on many short haul flights - I went from Nairobi to Entebbe recently and KQ 737 was 2-2 rather than 3-3.
I don't disagree that CE is less densely packed, more pleasant etc, however for me it lost something when it went to the all-economy seats rather than the adjustable CE seats they had before. Would I use CE on a cheapie upgrade, sure. Would I book it deliberately, no.