CX does seem to set the standard in most ways and I would put them at the top overall.

New seats are starting to make a difference for me. Flew J on QF and the new seats are very nice. Food was fine, but nothing to write home about. For overnight flights QF is my best option as I have to sleep with an autopap for sleep apnea. I can plug it right into a wall socket (with prior approval) and get a fairly good sleep.

AA's suites are also excellent, even if the food and some FAs are not. Great if you are working and have a window seat - just like an office. The old coffin seats are pretty average.

The only benefit AA has in cattle car is MRTC and they are starting to pull that out. I'll probably look at BA's WT+ for trips over the pond in the future.

For J I tend to prefer BA as I love their seats. I get a window seat and have a nice private area for sleeping. (Inverter needed for an autopap.)

I've done AY in cattle car and the flight was OK, if you can eat fish - I can't.

Except for CX I tend to consider the clubs as a place to have a reasonably clean and safe bathroom, get a free cuppa and relax a bit. My expectations are not too high in this area!

[QUOTE=virtualtroy]Time to revive this thread based on travelling every OW carrier bar Air Fungus during the past few months. Of course all my own subjective opinion.

Way to go and insult an entire nation through it's national carrier. This is the stuff of third rate stand up comics at a February panto in Blackpool.......

Wow, some reaction to an Oct '04 post! old sins, long shadows, I guess.

Or someone with too much time on their hands

Since even the busiest fliers posting here probably don't come close to flying enough (long-hauls, at least) to be statistically meaningful, anyone making travel plans based on FT recommendations had best read as many comments as possible and draw an average.

I think that would be "there's some small chance that an AA crew will be annoyingly bad", "Cathay crew are dependably great, and when they falter it's not really terrible", and "BA is dependably at least good enough." But do your own survey.

That's the aircrews. The things they're given to work with - aircraft seats, food and other on-board amenities, etc - are a lot easier to compare because it takes not much more than one flight to tell the story. Can anyone disagree that in first the progression is CX-BA-AA?

I'd say CX-QF-BA-AA

I'd say CX-QF-BA-AY-IB-AA-EI

Hmmmmm 2,247 posts vs. 105 posts......... talk about someone with time on their hands.

For F CX-QF-BA-LA-AA (F not offered on IB, EI or AY; but AA is competitive with BA on some routes, LAX-LHR and ORD-LHR for example and superior for DFW-FRA).

For J night flights QF-BA-CX-IB-LA-AA-AY-EI

For J day flights, CX-QF-IB-LA-BA-AA-AY-EI (but on some routes AA would place higher).

QF and IB have good bed comfort in J, while CX has better IFE and FA service. AA is erratic but some routes are dependably good and AA offers a quality product. LA has great wines, which cover a multitude of sins.

A comment on the F experience. Being rather tall I must say that I prefer the seats/beds in BA F over those in CX. Haven�t flown QF in F so I can�t compare. I all other respects except breakfast CX beats BA.

QF uses the same seat design in F as BA except it is the next generation (so significantly improved) and not in a herring-bone pattern. One of the QF improvements is specifically for tall people, so you probably would like the QF seat better than BA currently has (presumably the next refit will see BA pick up this same seat design). As for breakfast, I find CX makes a far better breakfast than BA, mostly because they will make me a perfect softboiled egg and BA will not. If flying BA I usually eat breakfast in T4 arrivals lounge, better than the on-board food.

We have just purchased a LONE4 ticket and signed up with AAdvantage. Are there any benefits with this ticket or do we fly like everyone else and no entitlement to lounges for Oneworld travelers?

A LONEx, by itself, will not bring you any benefits; these will come when you reach status (Gold, Platinum, EXP).

One would suggest you look for the AA "Platinum Challenge" on the AAdvantage FlyerTalk forum. Unless your LONE4 is very basic, you should be able to arrange an AA Platinum (oneWORLD Sapphire) Challenge for you journey.

Thanks for the tip, but I couldn't find anything on www.aa.com relating to "challenge". I went through all the info regarding AAdvantage Gold & Platinum though. Looks like I will have about 40,000 miles which isn't quite enough for Platinum, but more then enough for Gold status.

Once I hit 25,000 miles about half-way through my RTW trip, will I automatically be placed on Gold with the benefits that go with it? So far, it looks like the benefits such as priority check-in/boarding/wait-listing are just for flying within North/Central America.

How do I get Oneworld Ruby status and after I reach 25,000 miles can I get the above benefits in other continents during my RTW trip?

Thanks!