Fly JAL!!!

So we went to Japan. Maybe you knew already? After my awful US Airways experience I decided to see if requeting additional legroom would yield any results. The guy at the counter said it might be tough to seat us together, but he said if we wanted extra legroom we had to sit at the bulkhead, which is where they usually stick the moms with screaming babies. Not great. So we managed to get seats together.
Then as we're lounging, having a little pre-12hourflight snack, Jenny gets paged. She goes to find the Japan Airlines counter then comes back telling me that they have to switch our seats. We both figure this means we're getting split up, because the guy had said it would be tricky to sit us together.
So Jenny and I go back to the counter all prepared to start getting angry, and instead they tell us that we've been bumped up to premium economy.
Bigger, reclining seats, free booze&champagne, as you can see, more meal choice, etc. I could have spent the whole five days on the plane.
On the way back we had regular economy. Again I asked about legroom and they sat us at the bulkhead- no screaming babies!
The moral of the story is: ALWAYS ask for more legroom. I'm not so tall, so I said that I have a bad knee which acts up when cramped.