BA is not preferred! two years ago, a friend of mine once flew from london to the cayman islands on BA in economy, then london to singapore on SQ in business (though he thought that economy looked impressive too). he came back with the comment that, given the choice, he'd never fly BA again!

unfortunately, for reward travel on partner airlines, i think virgin charges the same number of miles for one-way as return flights, so this isn't a cheap way to do the transpacific part compared with a VS/SQ RTW ticket. the latter sounds the most sensible and hassle-free option.

ian.