We are flying from the US to London to Perth. On some legs of the flight we can fly either Quantas or BA. We haven't flown either one before. Which would you recommend and why or are they both about equal? We'll be traveling economy. Thanks!

Hi Kathy,
We flew on both and 18mths ago I would say that the BA planes were all refurbed with TV in the seat in front and were as comfortable as economy can be, Qantas 747 were older inside having not yet refurbed the fleet. However the BA food was better but the cabin staff more laid back with Qantas. One interesting note was that Qantas cabin staff were mainly male. Whilst BA were mainly female?
One thing I clearly remember was that there was no obvious demarkation between the classes ie econ/bus/1st.But Qantas made the classes obvious,ie they went to great lengths to show the additional facilities movies and films available to the higher class sections and made us paupers in economy feel really humble. It made me laugh !
We fly again in Dec and have no real preference.
Muck

I can't comment on BA or Qantas as haven't flown either to Australia (though flown BA in Europe/Africa), but my curiousity question is?

Where are you flying from in the US? and How come you're flying via London?

Granted Perth is on the West coast of OZ, and going via London makes sense, but most people I know who have flown to Perth have flown West rather than East.

Was the routing/time/cost better? Or are you using FF miles and that was the only routing you could get?

We wanted to spend a week in London on the way, and are flying from the east coast of the US (Newark or New York), so it seems just as easy to go east as west. I think most airlines fly west to Australia because most people are going to Sydney, Melbourne, etc. on the east coast of Australia. Routing/time/cost are all better for our needs going through Europe. I also looked into Round-the-world fares, but so far the best deal seems to be round trip through Europe.

Kathy -
Thanks for clarifying that you'll be spending 1-wk in London. Makes sense then to be flying East.
I had once checked flying to Asia by flying East as it seemed to make more sense, but sure enough the fare was much higher and while the distance was actually short, the time with connections was longer. So we not only flew West, but from NY actually over the Pole which cut some flying hours.
Enjoy your trip.

Flew JFK / LA / Melbourne last Christmas on Qantas. Great service on the planes...wonderful attentive crew. More men than women. Were very prompt serving all meals and beverages, especially my special order meals. Flight steward addressed me by my name thru-out the entire flight.

Also flew to Cairns, Brisbane and Sydney on Qantas. Nothing to complain about. On time, clean planes.

On the trans-Pacific flights, all seats had the individual tv screens and we were given a travel packet with eye shade, socks, toothbrush. Lots of plastic wrapped pillows and blankets for the entire 747.