It made me smile reading this. In my work too, I often hear colleagues refer to VS Upper Class as First Class. As SF says, VS's marketing is definitely working!

To answer the OP's question, I used to be very anti-BA and used to avoid them at all costs (even flying to India back and forth with work via FRA on LH!). I now see the error of my ways and wish I had switched to BA years ago. I was a fool not to. I am also now a complete convert and defender of BA! To the point I sometimes get defensive about them! How odd an airline can generate such emotion!