Originally Posted by Thunderroad

I did a quick search and came up empty, so would appreciate any help, especially since I need to decide on this very soon.

I have a trip coming up in late July from San Francisco to Canberra, in business class. FWIW, because of some budget constraints (about $7,000 total) and airline preferences (would rather not fly UA and would like to check out once of the other airlines, none of which I've flown before), I might need to fly via LAX or Vancouver, and from SFO to those places and between SYD and CBR in economy, on separate tickets from the transpacific legs.

Also FWIW, flying QF gets me AA miles and flying AC gets me UA miles, but this isn't a crucial consideration.

So, a few questions:

1. Most importantly, it seems like AC and Virgin have better J seats than QF, in that they are independent units each having aisle access. I've flown the somewhat similar Cathay Pacific seats and liked them...don't mind the configuration, the limited window views, etc. But am I missing something here? Is QF better re the reliability, service or even seats for that matter? And if it's AC versus Virgin, any recommendations?
2. If I do fly AC, the earliest return flight on QF or Virgin from CBR to SYD would get in 7 a.m. or so, with the AC leaving for YVR at 10:25 a.m. Is that a fairly safe domestic to international connection in SYD early in the morning in July?
3. If I do fly QF, any preference between the 380 and 747?

Thanks for any help!