Why can't passenger planes fly very high?

It is not that jet engines perform better at higher altitude, but rather they are more fuel efficient. Performance is far greater at lower altitudes. Just think about when you are taking off and the airplane accelerates quickly and pitches way up. There's lots of extra thrust down low to allow that. The fuel/air ratio remains somewhat constant through the climb. As altitude increases, the air thin outs and therefore, so can the fuel flow. Airlines try for the most efficient routes and altitudes as possible to save money. They do however change altitudes in flight (higher or lower) when needed for weather and turbulence avoidance. --- And a note about the jet stream, it is relatively narrow and always curving, so the time an airliner would spend there is very short. And another thing, it flows mostly west to east isn't the U.S. so a westbound flight would be at a disadvantage. Airlines still fly high whether traveling East or West.