I couldn't agree more with the OP - it's only when you are forced to fly with an airline other than BA (with a few notable exceptions) that you realise how relatively good they are.
In my own case Mrs PtF and I had to fly bmi
CAI-LHR in Economy
. To describe it as the pits would be too generous.
I knew we were in for a lousy experience straight after check-in; we got to passport control before realising that bmi's check-in staff had forgotten to give us the necessary departure forms to fill out, necessitating a journey back to the check-in desk.
While some things (lack of leg room, poor meal) come with the territory (flying Economy) I was more than amused to see the in-flight movie started - no AVOD - before the headphones were handed out. A departure delay of two hours didn't do anything to redeem the airline.
As we disembarked at LHR T1 (what a dump compared to T5) I actually thought to myself that maybe BA cabin crew are worth their supposedly high salaries.
