I am by no means a BA apologist and think standards of actual cabin service have slipped since the early 2000s.

However, I am not a QR fan - it's horses for courses but my overall experience of QR is that their crew are very robotic - yes you do always get a "welcome back Mr Morgan" and the CSD comes to say hello to FFs but it lacks any meaning to me when you hear the same script being used for each passenger. I don't like the lounge in Doha - you call BA CW a dormitory on the 777 well the Al Mourjan lounge at Doha is a warehouse. It's huge; lots of dates and water around but I find BA's Galleries lounge to be more comfortable. QR also has a much more variable product in J - you never know what you are going to get; they have multiple equipment changes. Yes their 787 and A350 products are great but their A330 and A340 isn't great. Their 777 is a good product but I prefer BA's backwards seating - in a window seat i can put the divider up and be in a bubble without knowing anybody else is there, whereas in QR J I am acutely aware of lying next to somebody else!

I also don't support QR because I don't agree with the human rights record of the region - having had a stint working in Doha I can tell you that QR crew have a curfew for their crew accommodation (and when on a trip), they have security guards who monitor movements, they are not allowed to get pregnant, marry without permission, and so on - do you really want to support a company or a regime that harbours that approach? I don't.

I have more time for Emirates. Yes, their cabin crew are held to high standards but I don't think the company rules their life in the same way that QR does - in fact there are clubs in Dubai where virtually everybody is EK crew and if they show their ID they get discounted drinks! EK also has a far more consistent product; Dubai airport actually works properly, and EK crew are generally less robotic.

I actually like what BA offers in CW - I'm not being funny but do you really want to engage in conversation about your frequent flier status at 2AM on a redeye flight? QR will happily turn the cabin lights on 2 hours before landing in the middle of the night to serve a hot breakfast - it's a totally different approach and philosophy to service. The best BA crew on sleeper services will often leave the cabin lights dimmed from "cabin crew seats for takeoff" to about 75 mins before landing - they can offer cookies etc using reading lights to the few that want any service at all.

I do hear what you're saying about general attitude of some people - i.e. BA ground staff at Heathrow can be a mixed bunch - some are excellent and some less so (I wrote a TR a few weeks ago about somebody who refused to believe they flew from T5 to Porto!) On the other hand, I've always found QR ground staff, in spite of any failings in terms of service (IE they have a tendency to follow you around in case they can fetch anything which makes me want to leave the lounge as I feel overwhelmed!) do genuinely put the customer first. On the whole though I'd say that ground service at Heathrow has been much better over the last couple of years, and I have also found that I've had far fewer 'bad' crew - but less 'stand out' crews as well. Then again, it's hard to be stand out when you are trying to do more with less.