My recommendation is to never fly first class. It will ruin flying for you forever. Unless of course you can afford to fly first class for the rest of your life!

My first flight ever (in 1996 or 1997) was a massive delay due to a leaking battery on a wheelchair; I was upgraded to first class when they sorted everything out and rescheduled everyone. Talk about ruining expectations (I've never flown first class since).

I used to fly quite a bit from the UK to US and got upgraded a few times. I still remember getting bumped up to business on a place with full reclining seats that turned into a bed.

Come morning I slowly returned to upright and could see all the way down into cattle class - where I discovered that one of my colleagues had been on the same flight... he looked less than impressed.

Another time - pre 9/11 - I somehow managed to make it all the way through to boarding a day early for my flight. So they bumped me up a class to get me on the plane.

Yes, business and first class commonly have power-operated seat adjustments (recline, lay flat, extend foot rest).

Aren't water and lithium a terrible combination in general?

Lithium-ion batteries don't contain raw lithium. It's got the same explosive reactivity as the sodium in salt. Water is a good way of stopping thermal runaway through cooling.

Lithium batteries on the other hand do contain raw lithium and thus will react with water. These types of batteries aren't used in phones though.

Yes - Lay flat seats will be electrically powered

I generally fly first class for 90% of flights and I've never seen an electrically-powered seat. I do only fly American domestic airlines though.

Domestic first class is usually just "extra extra legroom" and some comp treats and drinks. On cross-country flights sometimes you can lay almost flat.

It's missing the showers, the beds with full linens, the 1:1 attendant, the suites... If you get a chance try first class on Qatar airways, Singapore, etc

It varies.

Historically, you're right about domestic first class--which was similar to what's sometimes sold as premium economy these days.

However, some airlines (e.g. United) do sometimes have, in United's case, Polaris seating in business/first which is similar to/same as lie-plat Polaris seating in international. AFAIK, United just has the single Polaris class and doesn't have a separate first class like some airlines do.

For sure - I've had some good lie flat seats and perks on American cross country, and some of the jetblue mint seats are quite good. I also remember seeing a post here the other day about some very fancy domestic planes they are planning to use for people traveling to the super bowl.

My first experience with business and first class was long haul through the middle east, so the disappointment is still fresh for me a later time when I treated myself to first on a domestic flight and the only wonderful part of the experience was some juice in a glass while watching everyone else get on the plane.