This would be a cool place to try short-term "seat-swapping" rentals, a real "AirBnB" (ba-da-ching) as it were:
You buy a super-expensive bed-cube on a 20-hour flight, then register your flight and seat and mark a schedule when it's available for seat-swapping. "Guests" can book in 15-minute increments (on-demand if the flight has Internet). During their time, you swap seats and get to know their seat-neighbors.
Assuming an hour on each end for take-off/landing, and 8 hours you'd reserve for sleeping, that leaves 10 hours at $20/15-min = $800 recouped.
Except the Business Class seats flying international cost $10k+ in many cases (from what I hear online, I can barely afford to fly cattle class once every 5 years). I don't think someone that spends that much is willing to give up their seat for a majority of the flight for $800?
He said in 15 minutes increment how is that the majority of a 18h flight? I believe the purpose is to stretch and for the other person to save a bit of money. So you may book it a few times during the 18h flight maybe every 4 hours for 30 minutes and pay for that.
You buy a super-expensive bed-cube on a 20-hour flight, then register your flight and seat and mark a schedule when it's available for seat-swapping. "Guests" can book in 15-minute increments (on-demand if the flight has Internet). During their time, you swap seats and get to know their seat-neighbors.
Assuming an hour on each end for take-off/landing, and 8 hours you'd reserve for sleeping, that leaves 10 hours at $20/15-min = $800 recouped.