In the last 3 weeks, I have had the opportunity to travel in Qantas J class to Asia and to the USA. In view of the potential increase in competition on the transpac route with ? Singapore .I thought my recent experience may be of interest.
At the risk of being accused of filing a “trip report” for another forum , I have tried to just summarise the good and bad points . I traveled in 2 class 747 in QF and refer to the UA 747 service to Oz.
I expected to report that QF equipment and service clearly outmatched United but that is not the case.

Check in : Qantas not much difference to UA.
Lounges: Qantas slightly better with wider choice of magazines and food and better internet access.

Boarding Experience : not much QF differentiation between J and economy in the rush to board . I think UA slightly better organized to favour the business class pax.

Pre Take Off : real champagne in real glasses in QF- say no more! ( I just cannot understand why the TSA will not let United serve real champagne in real glasses pre take – at least that is what the FAs tell me!)

Time to seat belt sign off and first drink : consistently faster in QF ( maybe United aircraft climb more slowly or FAs take longer to "stir")

Nuts : UA ahead by a mile – QF's either came on a small and I mean small bowl or in packets – no where near my favourite warmed nuts on UA .Nor did QF offer seconds!

Seating arrangements : slightly fewer seats in top deck on QF or so you would think but the Skybed cocoons do seem to take up a fair bit of space – they actually made United’s upper deck seem more "roomy".

the actual seats : the Skybeds were not flat AND sloped towards the front and I did notice that .Their controls were a little complicated to work individually but the icons for several set positions were useful . The back massage on QF did not seem as good as the UA one. Still unable to get legs out horizontal in front you as the seat in the cocoon in front restricts upward movement. The QF seats just did not seem as comfortable as I would have expected but maybe I need to fly them more often before I criticise .

FA service: excellent on QF .The oldest staff member was 50 tops .(say no more re United. It was great have the feeling that a medical emergency on your flight is unlikely to involve a staff member.)

Wines : the champagne was of same standard both airlines ( nb QF champagne did not run out!) UA had the advantage of listing the available wines on their menu whereas QF did not even though the United often runs out of the good listed ones.

Food : QF a little better both in terms of quantity and quality – eg a decent size slab of beef fillet . Having said that ,UA’s steaks are always good quality also. Qantas had a great idea for breakfast – you filled in one of those hotel type breakfast orders and attach it to your seat coat hook and it got served when the FA saw you were awake .You had choices of muesli , fruit , bacon and scrambled eggs , yoghurt etc or note, United, all of them ! Service at slightly separate times meant less queues in fact no queues for the toilets.

Baggage storage : the upper deck QF a/c have bigger overhead storage compared to United – no need to use the rear storage area.

Deplaning : QF better at holding back the “hordes” so the front and upstairs could get to the immigration lines first.

Entertainment: many more choices on QF but with the Skybeds , the screen is on the back of the seat cocoon in front of your seat– its big but too far away , there is far less adjustment available and it is more subject to daylight interference if someone else in the cabin has their window open. The choice of movies did not include too many new releases in either airline. On 2 of the QF flights, part of the entertainment system was inoperative . As always, no audio comedy channel choice on United (why ? political correctness)

Cleanliness: same in both – crumbs left behind on the floor of QF plus on one flight , lettuce leaves still in the meal tray( I wasn’t hungry enough to check how fresh it was!).

Overall: I did not think that Qantas was that many "miles" ahead of United . Don’t get me wrong . They were better but not so far ahead that UA could not catch up to with a little effort, staff consistency and some money.

Sure, I am biased as QF simply does not compete in terms of frequent flier programs, and maybe it’s a case of the "Devil" that I know .