I hate flying, too, especially these days when it's such a hardship. It's not fun anymore. I used to love flying, and I found it exciting. Even in First Class (which I found out returning from Paris with my broken leg) Northwest Airlines has very little leg room -- no more than coach in most airplanes, and I had to keep my leg bent and propped on the nurse's bag. With international flying, though, you have oodles of room and a full leg rest on which I could stretch out my leg. I don't know if other airlines are like this domestically in Business or First Class.

I experienced both -- international (Paris to Detroit) and domestic

(Detroit to San Diego).

As for entertainment when you're crammed in like sardines, I always take a cassette player/recorder which serves a dual purpose. Besides listening to your favorite music and partially drowning out the sounds around you, you can use it to record sounds and voices on your travels and also record notes and thoughts about the trip which you can later refer to for writing up your journal of your trip.

I also bring a very small deck of cards (they come in a small plastic see-through box), and they're the right size to play solitaire on the food tray. I also bring reading material -- books and magazines and/or catch up on my snail mail correspondence by bringing stationery with me.

I hope this helps.

Diana San Diego, California