If Rip Van Winkle dozed off in coach 20 years ago, he wouldn’t recognize the front of the plane today. What used to pass for top-of-the-line first class in air travel not so very long ago wouldn’t even pass muster as today’s business class. Premium levels of comfort continue to escalate, as former first-class standards become the business-class norm and first class becomes fantastic.

We’re pleased to present our annual Global Traveler business- and first-class survey. In the global competition for the frequent traveler’s business, airlines continue to refine and redefine their premium classes. We did exhaustive research into every facet of the airlines’ top classes to produce a thorough reference by which to compare all the airborne apples and oranges.

We conducted extensive surveys of the world’s leading airlines to gather essential data on seat pitch (the distance between rows), seat width and degree of recline. We filled in any survey gaps by scouring online sources to make sure we give you all the numbers for every aircraft each of the airlines flies. And we crunched the numbers to give you a consistent standard of comparison across the board. We made sure that recline is represented on the zero-to-180-degrees scale (think back to your high-school geometry, in which a 180-degree angle is a flat line). If you tried to do this yourself, you’d find that some airlines report recline from a right angle (for example, 60 degrees off the perpendicular equals a 150-degree angle). We’ve made all those conversions for you, to show how they really stack up.

But while space and recline are the key comfort aspects of interest to most airline travelers, today’s premium classes offer a wide range of other features — and we’ve assembled information about them all. On the following charts, you’ll find comparative data on everything global travelers want, including summaries of each aircraft’s latest technological offerings (Can you plug in a laptop? Do you need an adapter? Is one provided?) and connectivity (availability of data ports, high-speed connections, Wi-Fi). For that precious downtime, we offer information about the aircraft’s entertainment features (How much variety is there? Is it scheduled or on demand?). We even give you a synopsis of what to expect in the amenities kit. And we let you know if your premium-class ticket gives you access to an airport lounge (some don’t) and once inside, what kind of connectivity you can anticipate.

KEEN COMPETITION
With high gas prices hitting the airlines hard, some passengers wondered if carriers would scale back their upgrade expenditures. They needn’t have worried. International business class is the most profitable sector of the air travel industry, and the airlines are diligently working to maintain — and grow — their piece of the pie by building a loyal following. That means comfort and amenities galore.

“Like most companies, we are aggressively controlling costs, but we are investing heavily in areas that impact our customers,” said John Jackson, director of passenger marketing and sales for Korean Air.

Domestic flying may still feel like a bus ride — and you may have to pay for your peanuts — but when it comes to making passengers happy on international routes, money is no object.

The launch this year of two new all-business-class airlines is an additional spur for existing airlines to make sure they’re state of the art. Eos flies 757s outfitted with only 48 lie-flat seats between New York (JFK) and London (STN). Maxjet’s 767s feature 102 deep-reclining seats on routes connecting London to New York (JFK) and Washington (IAD).

Since last year’s survey, a variety of airlines — Air Canada, Air France, Asiana, Austrian Airlines, Delta and Finnair — have introduced new business- and first-class service. And the list is getting longer. In recent months, United Airlines, CSA Czech Airlines and LAN Chile also announced plans for brand-new business-class se rvice. LAN will blend its existing first- and business-class products into its new Premium Business service offering the first full-flat seats to South America.

LOT Polish Airlines recently introduced a new business class on its Boeing 767-300 jets, featuring ergonomically designed seats that recline to 169 degrees. According to Marek Rymkiewicz, LOT’s general manager for the Americas, the new service is a harbinger of more innovations to come as the airline awaits delivery of its new-generation Boeing 787 Dreamliner, set to begin transatlantic service in 2008.

Closer to home, American Airlines is set to debut its first major premium-class cabin redesign since the introduction of its first-class Flagship Suites. The move is designed to reposition the carrier’s business-class product in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

“Our business-class cabin was falling behind the competition — we weren’t spending the money to upgrade,” said David Cush, American Airlines senior vice president for global sales, during a launch event.

That is now changing radically as American begins the installation of Next Generation Business Class on its Boeing 777 fleet. The star of American’s new business class is a computerized seat that not only lies flat, but can be adjusted almost infinitely to each individual’s comfort. (As Jim Hadden of American’s Inflight Products Department so deftly explained, “It goes flat enough that you don’t get a wedgie.”)

And British Airways, which has always been a leader in innovative premium service, recently announced the launch of its new Club World — just to stay ahead of the curve.

“The business class product has been an outstanding success since its original launch in 2000,” said John Lampl, public affairs director for British Airways. “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and many other carriers have imitated it, or are catching up. We need to remain ahead of the competition. A year and a half ago we put in softer and more comfortable cushioning. Now we want to totally relaunch, with a whole new seat, new catering concepts and menus, and improvement of the whole cabin decor.”

OH, THOSE SEATS
With all the bells and whistles that premium classes offer, the center of the airlines’ competitive repertoire is still the seat — if you can call these technological marvels of comfort and design anything so mundane as “seats.” Some airlines just come right out and call them “beds.”

The biggest buzzword, and hottest trend, is the ‘lie-flat’ seat, which is fast becoming standard in first class and is increasingly found at the heart of new business-class makeovers. Flat, on our chart, is 180 degrees. That doesn’t always mean the seat is strictly horizontal; it means you don’t bend in the middle. The majority of airlines offering lie-flat seats put them at a slight angle, so they take up a little less room per seat in the cabin. British Airways was an early adopter of “full flat”; Iberia, Air New Zealand, South African Airways, TAM Brazilian and Virgin Atlantic are among those offering horizontally flat seats in at least one cabin. American’s new lie-flat seats slide forward, as well as recline.

Asiana began implementing its new business class between Seoul (SEL) and the West Coast (SEA, LAX, SFO) this year. By next year, the lie-flat seats will be on its flights from New York (JFK) and Chicago (ORD) as well.

“We were the first transpacific carrier to offer lie-flat beds for our first-class passengers, in the mid-1990s, and we thought a change would be good for the benefit of business class,”said Bon Sung Koo, senior manager of marketing alliances for Asiana Airlines. “We wanted to be one of the first. We see more and more people trying to use business class when they can; once you are used to the higher end of seats, it’s hard to come back down.”

This year, Air Canada began what it calls an “extreme makeover” of its business class, offering every traveler in Executive First on international routes a lie-flat seat. The airline will begin rolling out a new international fleet of Boeing 777s next year, all with lie-flat beds.

“We started with an overhaul of our premium business class service in North America last year,” said Air Canada spokesperson John Reber, “With the new 777s next year and the refurbishment of our existing fleet, it will be a new standard for all of our customers wherever they are going.”

And if you think the seats in business class are fancy, just wait until you see first class where the lie-flat seats – often called “suites” due to their enhanced privacy dividers – are more like comfy beds complete with down comforters and fluffy pillows.

MAKE A CONNECTION
As airlines upgrade, the option to plug into power for your laptop is becoming more widespread, while the need for adapters is decreasing. Internet connectivity is still dependent upon extensive and expensive networks. Connexion by Boeing is the dominant provider, but the future of the connections is up in the air — figuratively as well as literally — as reports suggest Boeing, which after six years shows no sign of recouping its billion-dollar investment in the technology, seeks a buyer or partner. Meanwhile, the development of wireless frequencies that don’t interfere with airplane systems is proceeding swiftly. In North America, AirCell is hoping to establish a network to serve wireless devices on aircraft, while Air France is planning a test of OnAir’s GSM equipment, which enables mobile phone and Blackberry-type transmissions.

FRILLS AND MORE FRILLS
All sorts of fancy features are showing up on the list of business-class upgrades — so many that we can’t chart them all. Some of the noticeable trends are seriously bigger tables (American, ANA, Delta’s new Business Elite, for example), “magic fingers” massaging seats (Etihad, SN Brussels Airlines) and extra personal storage (American, LAN, ANA).

Video screens are getting attention, too. Several carriers are touting big screens of 15 inches or more. American’s smaller, but more versatile, Next Generation Inflight Theater has a 10.6-inch monitor that can be mounted on the seat back or moved to the armrest or table. And Maxjet gives each passenger a personal digital player — not just a DVD player, it can play videos on demand.

The number of entertainment channels is also growing at an astounding clip. Emirates set the bar this year, offering passengers their choice of 100 movies, 50 TV channels, 350 audio channels and 40 computer games. In fact, a selection of 15 or more movies is not uncommon for most premium classes, so even the most frequent traveler can count on fresh entertainment.

Amenity kits keep getting better — and, sometimes, bigger. We’ve coded the standard amenities for your quick reference, but don’t be surprised if you find all sorts of goodies — from Air Canada’s mints to Air France’s mirror to Austrian’s massage ball. American’s new premium enhancements even include supersizing the amenity kit: It’s designed for future life as a shoe bag.