Originally Posted by
Gig103
Definitely not a waste. Exhausted or not, I can't imagine that you would have done that successfully in coach. Aside from a typically noisier cabin, being 10-abreast in the back of the plane would have meant the person next to you was close enough that there would have been some shuffling, or bumping (shoulders/legs/hips), and the din of far more passengers chatting during meal services. If you are an aisle person like me, you would have had to get up for some passengers who wanted to stretch or use the lav. The person behind you could have been jabbing at the IFE half way through the flight, or a child could have been nearby crying from difficulty with the pressure changes.
When I was younger, I flew international Y and it was not the seat that was the worst thing, it was my fellow passengers. The people who complain about my wanting to recline on an overnight flight. The belligerent drunks. The person who had clearly been travelling for days without bathing. A trip with bad experiences both ways is what first caused me to start figuring out the upgrade game. As I've gotten older and my back has gotten worse, I appreciate the seat a lot, and don't think I could physically do an overnight sitting up without significant pain, but it was the fellow travelers that first made me want to get out of economy,. Though I may complain about the UA food compared to other airlines, that is a first world problem, and I have not once had a truly bad experience in any business class cabin.