Flew long-haul under Italian FTL's. A killer. Knackering. A combat zzziz east bound was essential. Trouble was the seats did not recline enough and there was no head rest. An air cushion round your neck helped a little, but you still had to slump down in the seat. That left a gap under your lower back. Wake up brain refeshed but back & neck as stiff as a Sunday-best dog collar. For
U$185m I'd expect better seats for the drivers. Truck drivers who spend 4 hours strapped to them have better saddles. Even economy seats are better than the flight deck. For all the work the various union technical committes and manufacturers have done to improve a/c realibility, why oh why not do such a simple thing to help improve the realibility of the weakest link? I heard from one charter airline employer I had that there were 2 class of seats available. Guess what? We got the cheaper version. No surprise there. Why are there 2 versions? There should be only 1st class for the sharp end jockies.