Great report, and I agree with most of your comments regarding BA versus VS; although as somebody who is about 6' and somewhat broad, I find that neither Virgin UC or BA Club World seats to be very comfortable when fully extended, so I tend to have them set about 3/4 flat (if that makes sense).

The Qantas lounge in SYD is a lifesaver after a long flight. I recently did LAX-SYD-JNB

I've just lost my VS gold as my employer has switched to AA as their preferred carrier, so will be using BA a lot on non-transatlantic routes.

Given a choice between VS & BA, I would have to flip a coin, or else project the ammount of flying I am likely to do in the near-mid future. I would probably choose BA simply to help protect my status with AA unless I could be pretty sure of acheiving Gold status with VS again