Huh? I love the upper deck when it’s business class, never noticed any unusual movements and it’s less people so you have less people per bathroom and better service. The pilots are up there as well. I’ve never ridden up there in coach class and have never seen coach up there but it’s up to the airline how it’s set up. That 747 that crashed in Japan that killed 520? I think it had coach everywhere.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_123
One thing I’ve always wondered about flight 800 was that I thought it was an older 747 with only three windows on the top deck but when they pieced the plane together, it had the long row of windows up there???
Now the back seats of the longest variant of the 757, it has noticeable tail wag, I can’t stand em and I can sleep through any turbulence. Maybe the movement is a different type on the 747 that I’ve never noticed (roll VS yaw, is that correct?) They also take forever to board and off load and the seats are three to a row in coach with the same width body as a 737 and single aisle. In fact, those are the worst seats of any model Boeing, the three to a row or middle seats of a widebody.
My 747 exposure was almost entirely courtesy of Aer Lingus, Kennedy to Dubin by way of Shannon and back or Logan to Dublin by way of Shannon and back. I heard “Fáilte go Baile Átha Cliath - Welcome to Dublin!” many, many times between 1989 and 1995.
Here’s some neat vintage footage of an Aer Lingus 747, from I believe 1975. It still has the piano bar on the upper deck:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnzDFos6gR8