OK, so I'm heading to Sydney from my home airport (MAN) in economy and I had a choice of about 7 airlines with reasonable connections. In the end I picked SQ because of their reputation as a 5* airline, and because I am *G. I found the product so far (I've just done the short hop to MUC) to be reasonable (I'm not squashed even though I'm 6'2") but not 5*. It looks like the Skytrax ratings are top-heavy based on the F and J product. Does that sound fair?

Anyway, what airlines would FT Y-flyers prefer to fly with on long haul and why?

What surprises and/or disappointments has everyone had?