I did some great jump seat rides on the 720. Coming back from Athens we were offered FL430, out came the tables and they worked out we could, but only just, so up we went but not much above the stalling speed.
Coming out of Ibiza we got direct climb to FL390, it didn't takes us long to get there either.
In the good old days when we were allowed to use our initiative, it was common to try and get direct climb to anything London would give us in the middle of the night. Off 08 they only climbed to 3000, this particular night 720 airborne, rang London to see what they could give him. They were most impressed when I cleared him direct to FL 370 and route direct Midhurst, you could here the cheering in the background!