Was about 20 years ago, and the seat quality has improved so much since first traveling business class. The food is one area it continues to decline, even in business. There are certain airlines I try to fly knowing that their food isn’t going to be completely terrible.

If I have an option, it will always be the middle eastern airlines (Qatar, Etihad, or Emirates) or Asian airlines (ANA, Korean, JAL, Singapore…Cathay Pacific was amazing, but the number of flights out of the US has declined substantially) with Air France not being a bad option as long as its business and Turkish Airlines being great almost every time.

The only problem with Turkish or the Middle East is you have to fly through Istanbul, Doha, Abu Dhabi, or Dubai everytime to connect. That means you have to fly 12+ hours from basically anywhere in the US and then to your destination. I once flew Turkish to Manila. They flew east to Istanbul and then east to Manila (both segments 12 hours). It was a long travel day, but their service was amazing so it wasn’t too bad.