Originally Posted by
747jetter
That might be my bias. But to answer what ST has that is special - for me as EU based person without transpacific flying and a few random hops around Asia, AF KL offer the best seat in the industry, both airlines 1-2-1 with a few old 330 flying to either holiday destinations where you anyway most likely fly with someone else which makes the configuration great, nice lounges in Paris in case of longer layover, pretty efficient AMS in case of short layover and perfect pro customer oriented Plat line in case I screwed up or the airline did.
Going towards Asia, my preferred seat among European airlines is AY's non-reclining seat. I know that it is a bit marmite (some love it and some hate it) but it is pretty much the only J seat in which I have managed to get more than 5 to 6 hours truly uninterrupted sleep. The catering on long-haul is OK without being particularly exciting but the comfort of the seat for sleeping is what sells it above all for me. I also like the Platinum wing at HKG, and also having access to CX's F lounges at HKG as OWE. HEL airport also has to be the easiest gateway in Europe. Problem is, of course, that AY is a much smaller airline with only a handful of destinations in Asia, so probably not comparable because of that, but it was the "best seat in the industry" that I was kind of reacting to. That may be true for some but not for me.
Quality Asian partners is also something that I like in OW (CX, JL) and that is something that I miss on ST, where the Asian partners are fairly meh in comparison to OW and *A.