Here's a couple more points for what it's worth:

--AMC chartered aircraft (e.g., World Airways, Omni, UAL, NWA, USAIR, etc) sometimes have first class sections. These airlines typically fly scheduled rotators or chartered trips from points in the middle east (and beyond) to CONUS. Depending on the manifest, it is usual to see anywhere from E-6 and above sitting up front. If a GO is aboard, he/she will certainly have a reserved, choice seat. Sometimes the plane commander (usually an unfortunate 1stLt/Capt) will allocate a block of seats in first class for the dozen servicemembers (working party) whose job it is to load baggage on the aircraft. If you find yourself on ATA, WORLD, OMNI, or North American...foget about it!! Every seat in the house is designed for a narrow a$$, and they have the stethescope audio service. Then again, it's the only way to fly an L1011 (which I did two months ago!) or perhaps a DC-10/MD-11 which are becoming very rare.

--Government travellers sometimes have few choices of the airline they can choose between certain routes. The US GSA contracts a set carrier on city pairs. One of these city pairs that I used to fly had two (2) airlines with non-stops: US AIR and Midwest Express. You can guess the choice that most travelers preferred. To add to the mix, Midwest Express was honoring USAIR tickets at the time (well before 9/11). This created such an uproar that the DOD staff was warned not to fly MIDEX any more on that city pair. An even greater uproar ensued, and the GSA actually changed the contract to MIDEX the next fiscal year (after some high ranking SES knocked some sense into the GSA contract writers).

--On routes where there is no standing GSA contract, the government traveler can request star alliance (or preferred airline) reservations. Most times, depending on the competence of the travel office, these requests are met.

--Government travel office has to make due diligence to book all travel on US flagged carriers. Obviously, this does not pertain to all given routes, and exceptions must be noted in the itinerary.

--Service members coming back from the middle east are authorized to wear their combat utility uniform. I know that AA does seem to OP-UP these service members if there is room up front. That is a nice policy, and AA also allows servicemembers in uniform (heading back to the middle east) to use the Admirals Club in certain cities. Again, a nice policy.

--The "14 hour rule" is fairly nebulous. Again, the trip must be 14 hours in duration (I thought it was 12), and there must be a meeting/conference the next day. I have had this work in my favor one (1) time out of perhaps 2 dozen flights between Japan/middle east and CONUS.

Cheers,
hiflyer