British Airways vs Qantas
 

Just returned from Australia after travelling with British Airways and Qantas.

We were lucky enough to be upgraded on the way to Tokyo to World Traveller Plus. If anyone is considering this, it is worth it. I've looked to see how much more you would have to pay for WTP - and it looks like around £100. If your travelling by yourself then go for it, but if your travelling as a family then it may be worth reconsidering.

As for British Airways service, l have to say it is terrible. We travelled back from Singapore to LHR on a 15 hour flight, and the entertainment was awful - they may have twenty channels, but there was only one film worth watching, while another channel was unavailable throughout the flight. The food was average, and after being on 8 flights in December, it was the worst.

The whole service provided was shabby - the cabin attendants didn't seem to know what they were doing and kept making mistakes and shouting across the plane (it was a night flight).

Qantas, however, provided fantastic service on their flight from Sydney to Singapore. Very well done - l had no complaints. Food was excellent, entertainment was great and it was a very comfortable flight.

BA has a very low presence in South East Asia, Sinagpore Airlines, Malaysia, Thai, EVA etc all have great service. I agree Qantas is better than BA but I don't feel either comes up to the standards of the others. Singapore Airlines actually has more flights to more places in Australia and NZ than anyone else, it's like 9-10 flights per day from their Changi hub. I stopped using BA years ago, I know they are popular in Europe and North America but from South East Asia apart from the local carriers they just don't serve as many destinations as Air france or Lufthansa.

I think we will certainly give Malaysian Airlines/Singapore Airlines a go after the poor service from BA. However due to the ticket offered by the travel agencies in the UK, most round the world tickets are with the One World Alliance, which neither airlines are part of.

I don't know about Malaysian but Singapore Airlines are part of the Star Alliance (United, Lufthansa, etc.). They also have round-the-world tickets.
Next time if you're doing OneWorld, may I suggest Cathay Pacific, instead of BA from/to Asia. Cathay Pacific is probably the best airline in the OneWorld Alliance.

Star Alliance has excellent RTW flights, from Europe you can use Thai, Singapore Airlines or Lufthansa, and from Australia across the Pacific Air New Zealand and then United back to Europe, or the other way around, and Air New Zealand does LAX to London too.