I flew BA CW on the LHR-SFO A380 not along ago which was my first BA CW experience in 7-8 years (!) amidst tons and tons of CX J and AA these couple years. Perhaps I had very low expectations to begin with but it wasn't as bad as I thought

The food was much better than CX (you can see our endless complaints over at the CX forum...) although how they catered enough menus but not wine lists is beyond me still. However, not starting the 2nd meal until 90 minutes before arrival and still wrapping up with adequate time to spare was quite impressive.

Seat was okay as I could sleep comfortably and the padding was alright presumably because the plane was relatively new. Although I have no idea how/where I could put my stuff if there weren't those lovely bins on the side. I must say that I was probably in one of the better seats 59K that contributed to my enjoyment.

Service was a mixed bag, only 1 CC called me by name, another one was friendly but the rest were indifferent (and seems like the crew to pax ratio is as sparse as CX, another thing we love b*tching about at the CX forum). IFE was hardly international so I had the map on all flight long but that was not a nuisance. The kits were borderline comical but CX isn't too better here, of course QR is stellar in this aspect.

Perhaps the most disappointing bit was the LHR lounge (I used GF and took a look at the GC above) - both extremely tired, furniture worn, overcrowded and clinically unappealing. So were the showers. The spa was cool tho.

For those that fly with CX on some sort of a frequency, you will see that they tend to impress well for a one-time flight, but if you fly CX regularly, you get annoyed with the stuff that they don't do well at quickly. The only thing that is consistently superb is service, but that goes a long way too!