I’m surprised by all the love for the 747. That has always been my least-favorite plane to fly. I suppose it’s probably because when I was 12, the 747 I was in caught on fire (well, one of the 4 engines caught on fire) and we made an emergency landing, and it was… shall we say… a stressful day.
But it’s crowded plane, with a lot of interior seats. And the middle seat of that block of 4 in the middle is REALLY middle. I frequently feel claustrophobic in a 747. And they take FOREVER for passengers to deplane.
In contrast, I really liked the 787. I flew Japan Airlines, direct to Tokyo. It was configured to give us all enough room, and it wasn’t so huge as to feel claustrophobic to me (maybe claustrophobic isn’t the right word? I feel crowded and tense in packed spaces). And I especially liked that they dimmed the windows at night, but let each passenger undim their own window a little. So I could look out the window in the middle of the nominal night without shining bright lights on fellow passengers – or on myself, for that matter. That was a quiet, comfortable flight.