BA or Quantas?
 

Traveling from the US to Australia, we could do some parts of the flight on either BA or Quantas? Which would you recommend and why? Or are they both about equal? We will be flying economy?

I'm little confused as to how can you be flying BA to Autralia from US, unless you will be flying through Europe, which would make it a loooonnng flight in economy.
Both airlines are above average in economy, but if there is one problem, it would be with yhe seats being little tight.
Will you please explain the BA routing? Thanks.

One more thing,
Our great friends down under are really touchy about the airline name - it's not QUANTAS it's QANTAS :)
No big deal, but just wanted you to know.

We are going to Perth, which is of course on the Western side of Australia, making it about half way around the world if you go either east or west. The routing is Newark to London to Singapore to Perth. On the London to Singapore leg we can fly either BA or Qantas (thanks for the help with my spelling!)

Kathy,
Now that I know you're flying from New York to Perth, the routing does make sense. It's still just a bit longer(about 800 miles), but on a trip like that, it does not make that much difference.
So, again, they're about equal. If there is a way to move up to Economy Plus, I would really think hard about that option as either way it's a looonnnng flight. The service and food on both are above average.
Have a great trip!!!

From a Qantas flight attendant:
Quite a Nasty Trip Any Survivors?
Fly them vs. BA. It's much better but you need to try to get out of steerage. Have you looked into an around the world ticket? Instead of flying Newark-London-Perth-London-Newark you could easily keep going east. Usually these RTW tickets are less than point to point fares which means the possibility of a business class ticket vs economy. I've done many of these over the years and they are seldom seen in the USA but once you discover them, you're hooked! Call an experienced travel agent and/or Qantas to find out if this will work. There's also Circle Pacific fares but doubt they're going to serve. Have fun down under...........If I had your email address, I'd send more info about them.

We want to spend a week in London on the way to Perth, and the best prices I've been able to find are Round Trip. Someone else told me about Round-the-World tickets and I looked into it, both through the airlines (more expensive) and on-line brokers (still slightly more expensive and much less convenient). Maybe I'm not looking in the right places? My son is living in Australia and is getting married, so we expect to be repeating this trip in years to come, so we're just learning the ropes this time. Any advice is appreciated!

All other things being equal (and they may not necessarily be), you should stick with a single carrier for your trip. That way if you should encounter a problem such as a missed connection, you will have someone who is going to take the responsibility of getting you to your destination instead of different parties pointing fingers at each other.

A second reason is that you should also be earning a lot of FF miles for this trip. If there is not a partnership arrangement between the carriers, those mileage benefits will be of less practical value when they are distributed between different accounts than if they were concentrated with a single carrier's program. I would weigh that factor into the equation, particularly since you anticipate that you may be making a similar trip again. Choose a place to deposit those miles that will provide you with the greatest potential benefit going forward.

Flyboy makes some good points.
BA and Qantas are part of OneWorld Alliance (AA, Lan Chile, FinnAir, Iberia, Cathay Pacific and Aer Lingus are the other full partners with many other airlines as lesser partners). Sign-up for one of these programs and try to stick with it. You will earn miles, flying on any one of these, but as Flyboy stated, you want all the miles going into one little pile.
I would suggest AA, but unfortunately for this trip you will not get the full mileage.
First BA just went into a new rules, that you only earn 1/4 of actual miles flown with a discount economy ticket, and also if you are an AA member, you cannot earn miles on BA crossing the Atlantic(EWR-LHR). So, assuming that you are not flying on a full fare coach ticket, you will only earn 1/4 of the actual miles from London-Singapore-Perth even if you signed-up to BA program.
Second, even if you choose Qantas, you will only get 70% of actual miles flown in discount economy, better than BA, but still not the best.
Either way, DO sign up if you are not a member, as the miles do add up, and with your regular flights to Australia, you will get free tickets fairly quick.
Check-out the following sites:
www.flyertalk.com - frequent flyers sharing tricks and tips to get the most out of all the programs. Also a good place to help you find less expensive tickets, especially RTW tickets.
www.oneworld.com - some more info about the alliance.