I once dropped an old motorola flip phone off a 50 foot cliff, had it split apart into half a dozen different pieces, snapped it back together and it was fine. Somehow I doubt the G1 I have now would survive as well.

Have you actually flown first class? I haven't, but I can tell you that even flying business class is a huge improvement over economy. Just getting on the plane is easier, with being able to use the priority lane for boarding, and sometimes even for security checks. Then there's the actual in-flight experience (more roomy and comfortable seat, more attention from the flight crew, drink what you want, etc...), but when things do go wrong the ground staff is actually happy to help you, and will do so even if there are a dozen economy class passengers that are clamoring for help. :P
Of course, it's way more expensive, but you get what you pay for.

Sure, some of the airline employees are hateful bastards, but I would be too if someone walked up to me and started yelling, so the "never become angry" applies regardless of what class you're flying.

Most flights I'm on I'm sitting on the floor b/c the plane has no seats. To fit 20+ skydivers into a Twin Otter you need to have at least some people sitting on the floor (and there aren't "seats" in the regular sense anyway). :)

I hate landing in planes; the number of times I've jumped out of the plane far outweighs the number of normal commercial flights I've taken.

Acceleration from a magnitude 5.7 earthquake can be "over 0.1g".
  (reference: http://geology.utah.gov/online/pdf/pi-29.pdf)

Acceleration from a car crash, even a minor one, can easily be _several_ g! It's not really comparable, unless the earthquake makes your rack fall over and hit the ground.

Have you ever seen a perfectly good airplane?