I don't mean to come across as Joe Patriot here, but this comment just rankles me...

What a crummy place the U.S. has become? There's alot of crap in modern day America to be sure, but there's still plenty of good, the vast majority of it outside of the mindless schlock perpetrated as Mainstream American Culture. There's still nowhere else I'd rather live, and I've been to some pretty nice corners of the world over the years.

As for traveling about the U.S., we've definitely seen better days. I miss more than most the days when U.S. airliners were spacious, with First Class and Coach lounges and hot dinners and consistently polite, pretty young stewardesses. But then if you look back at the fares in those days, you'd find that compared to most of today's fares between big cities, we paid quite alot for those services. Those who'd rather pay the equivalent of $100.00 or more per ticket to receive those services these days would be in a distinct minority. U.S. domestic First Class was alot nicer back then too, but then in order to get a seat up there, you had to pay considerably more to buy a First Class fare. There were no upgrades.

In survey after survey, most frequent flyers have indicated their primary concerns are space and convenience of schedule. All of the things that used to make for a nice inflight service have unfortunately never ranked highly. Alas, I fear that in this regard we have been hoisted by our own petard...

P.S. Although your trip may not have been so nice, I laughed reading this report. I like your writing style, Eastbay1K. It sounds like you've more than earned a nice flight for a change, so enjoy that First Class service with LAN Chile.