Also, having flown the 9W wet lease in one direction and EY operated flight in the other, I honestly don't get the hostility towards the 9W product some have exhibited in this discussion.

I found the hard product to be superior to EY. The seat/suite felt more comfortable, bigger(9W uses entire Zone A for its F Cabin while EY squeezes in 2 rows of J in there - 9W also has narrower aisles) and the colour scheme was more to my liking; the IFE had been re-skinned to be the same as EY; the food, I found was better than what was on offer on EY (and two other FTers with different tastes to mine were in agreement).

Where EY did win was the service. The staff on 9W operated flight (with mixed cabin crew) felt a little bit "unsure" for the want of a better term; but once they hit the groove, the service couldn't be faulted. It is not often you get an omlette made exactly to your specifications at 35,000 feet! Service on the EY flight was a bit more "on the ball" and the staff's experience with the product and delivering the expected levels of service clearly showed through here.