United Airlines stepped up its level of service in Business Class, adding lots of gadgets and a 6'4" "lie-flat" seat that's 23.5 inches wide to its list of creature comforts. Leapfrogging rival American Airlines' video players on board, United brings flying into the early 21st century, installing 15.4-inch LCD displays for those bleary-eyed travelers. The company will also add a USB port and iPod adapter so travelers can plug in their own devices.

There's a lot of the customary audio on board, and that's also been improved, letting travelers create custom playlists out of 20 channels of XM satellite radio, playing 150 hours' worth of entertainment on demand into noise-canceling headphones. The company plans to roll out these upgraded Business Class features later this year, and will be finished with the transition by late 2009.

United didn't mention any improvements to its Economy Class cabin, however, where each of those seats on its Boeing 737 planes is a mere 17 inches wide, the narrowest of any U.S. air carrier, according to data we gathered from SeatGuru.com. United also offers a skimpy amount of legroom in those cheap seats, with the distance between the midpoint of one seat and the one behind it (known in the industry as "pitch") of just 32 inches, also among the shortest of any airline in the world. — Charlie White

Luxist, via Airline Travel News