I have to agree with you stut, the crews -- and now the equipment -- on the LAX-LHR are damm good.

Like you say, the choice of departure times as with BA or even VS is helpful - but the timings as they are seem to work ok for me, particularly for working the following day in LA or London or for connections onwards to the SWP.

In terms of reliability, the route has always been the one that the airline seem to pull the stops to get out on time - I've seen them cancel or delay or reroute other flights to make sure NZ2 makes it out of AKL on time. The west-bound sector benefits from a nice lump of pre-departure time on the ground at Heathrow that seems to mean that the only delays I've experienced leaving London have been (recent) waiting for clearance from the US authorities, and the occaisional service meltdown at Heathrow itself - which of course is felt by every airline at T3/the whole airport when it happens.

In terms of route contracts, I understand from our current and former corp. travel arrangers that they have much more leeway with BA in terms of negotiating deals, which makes sense I guess given the scale of NZ operations from the UK. That said, our 'implant' from the arranger has developed a pretty good relationship with the NZ travelcentre in central London and together they have managed to swing some good deals (and massaged class avail. in Z or D) when I've been moaning about using the 'contracted' airlines to get places.