There's been a ton of innovation in the space. It used to be seven hours hotboxing a melange of cigarettes while they lose your luggage, but now it's 7 hours of having your knees jammed up against the seat in front of you while they tell you that three grams of peanuts is a proper snack. It's a whole different experience.
Top tip : if you are flying internationally avoid Uas airlines where possible. The US airlines are built around domestic flights. They treat international flights as "long domestic ".
By contrast some airlines are built around long-haul (international) flights, with domestic either not there at all, or just a feeder.
Don't get me wrong, economy is still economy. But an economy seat on Emirates is better than economy on United or Delta (well, last time I flew those anyway.)
Perhaps the biggest innovation though is seat-back entertainment. Done well, it makes a huge difference to long-haul flights.
Correction: while they helpfully wake you up in the middle of your redeye to tell you about a new exciting credit card offer only available to you in flight
