I've found the compartments to be nicer than airline-style seating, even with strangers. A lot of the time though, you do get the compartment to yourself, or s

I've found the compartments to be nicer than airline-style seating, even with strangers. A lot of the time though, you do get the compartment to yourself, or share it with just one other person. And of course, if you are travelling with friends or family, they can be in the compartment with you. The empty "hallway" space outside the compartments is also nice. It means you can go out and walk around without bothering other people, not so easy on a airline-style car. If you are agile, in a compartment you can climb up on the luggage racks above the seats and sleep there (I've done that). You need to give some (maybe non-verbal) assurance to the other people in the compartment that you aren't crazy. Again that's easiest when it's just a few people. If the compartment has just 1 or 2 people, it's easy to lie down on the bench seats and sleep. With 3 or 4 people, you can flatten out the seats and everyone can sleep if they don't mind a little bit of squishing. As a college student I was fine with that. Maybe most of us here are too old for that by now. A full compartment is imho certainly not noticeably worse than open plan seating. A non-full compartment is definitely better, if you have a bit of luck and get one. So think of buying an economy airline ticket that automatically comes with a chance of a free first-class upgrade, vs. one without such a chance.