I am not a BA Fan. But I would disagree that EK trumps BA in Economy Class, based on my personal experience. I flew 4 long haul sectors on EK in Economy and the aircrafts were clean, in-flight entertainment was excellent, however I had the worst in-flight service I ever had in my 30 years of flying compared to any other airline in the world and encountered very rude ground staff in Dubai. It was very consistent on all the 4 flights I took.

Compared to that I have flown BA long haul economy many more times and never once had a bad in-flight service. Of course I have had very lousy experience on all my BA Club World flights but in Economy and CE never.

I guess experiences differ, but I would choose BA over EK any day in any class. But when it comes to EY and QR that is a different story