I too am a recent QF deserter.... after a horrendous experience in April this year when QF wouldn't let me change a flight MEL-BNE on "the cheapest possible business class ticket you can buy" (that was what the d**** at the "customer service" desk said to me - what an irony - customer service lol) - the ticket was 100% refundable including no show - but not changeable (so strange). So I spat the dummy, literally walked across the terminal to Virgin sales desk and bought a J oneway to BNE on the next available flight which cost LESS than the fare difference QF wanted to charge me! Then I just no-showed on the QF flight and the refund automatically appeared on my credit card the next day.
But I digress.... I agree with so many posters here that QF really doesn't makes its customers feel loved. Since then I have almost exclusively flown VA domestically - i still had a few QF flights already booked which I had to fly, but since April have booked no new revenue flights. I'm only a Silver with VA (almost gold though), and fly almost exclusively in J as I book 28 days out and that costs the same as a QF Y Flexi. Anyway, even as a lowly Silver, the service and welcome I get on VA is so good. Always warm, genuine smiles, and I am not an elite frequent flyer with them, so i assume that is just how they are - QF in my opinion is full of worn out old leather shoes that pose as cabin crew.
However..... QF's technology is so much better. I cannot work out the Velocity App versus the Virgin App - seems you use one to book, and then one to manage said booking? The websites are similarly coughbersome and confusing to use. And it seems to take days for points to be credited to your account. QF's single portal is by far superior.
QF's lounges are better, I think. At least QF's domestic J lounges are better. Last Thursday at MEL there was not a single spare seat in the VA lounge - not even at the standing bar areas - I have never experienced that with QF before. Sure, QF also gets busy but I have never seen a no seat scenario and I travel pretty much every week for the past 10 years.
Trying to understand how VA works with partner airlines is also confusing. QF's oneworld alliance is much clearer to understand.
Both airlines operate the same aircraft domestically, and I prefer VA's cabin layout on the 737 - seems more intimate in J. And they are better with enforcing the exclusivity of the J cabin. I have not flow VA internationally so cannot compare.
I am probs going to remain QF Plat for at least another 2 years but after that I might just abandon them altogether... the only thing I will miss are the F lounges but with LTG I think I can be happy in the J lounges... and let's face it - the only "amazing" F lounges that QF gives access to are SYD, MEL, HKG, NRT, DXB, LAX.... but I hardly go to HKG anymore, LAX i can use the AA F lounges (as they allow OW sapphire members)... I go to NRT a lot and it will be sad not to have use of the JL F lounge, but I will have access to the EK lounge which is pretty amazing. And the JL J lounge is not shabby either.