BA and QF J Class observations
I flew QF J two weeks ago, from Sydney to London, and BA J a week later, on the way home.
Impressions of Qantas:
I was pretty impressed with the new Marc Newson designed chairs in QF. The cocoon effect was interesting. I'm guessing that it goes to around 15 degrees off being horizontal. The seat hood was just a little tight around my shoulders. Liked the bigger LCD screen and thought that the whole effect was like watching TV in bed. I thought the handgrip on the top of the seat in front was useful to assist with climbing over your neighbour's seat when it was extended. The magazine slot was on the narrow side, and there was nowhere (that I could find, at least) to store books etc on the aisle seats.
The food and other aspects of service were fine. Off-topic somewhat, I was reading a Skytrax customer review of QF, in which the reviewer noted that the service on QF tended to reflect how the staff happened to be feeling that day.
Impression of BA:
Overall I felt it was an inferior product, and given that this was a paid ticket, I would've rather flown QF there and back. Initially, I was looking forward to comparing both services, but this wore off within the first few hours. The beds go to horizontal, but are noticeably narrower than QF seats (or even the old Dreamtime seats). In the main cabin, BA manages to get the seats on a 2/4/2 configuration, which is the same seat configuration as their World Traveller Plus cabin. The seats were too narrow around the shoulders to fit into, which was a shame. The backwards-forwards configuration of the chairs would be great if you were travelling with a companion, but if you're not, the arrangement can only be described as 'intimate'. An extendable fan separates the two passengers' personal space. Thankfully, the bloke next to me was quite pleasant (he'd flown from Australia to the UK on QF, and back on BA, and also thought the QF product was better; he stated that he was 6'3" and found the BA bed just a little too short).
Food was fine; vodka is my poison and therefore am generally pleased wherever I sit. Service was OK and friendly. I prefer the noise-cancelling headphones from QF.
NM, I agree that CX has to be thrown into the mix. Must say I found the incline on their beds did not preclude me getting a fantastic night's sleep back to Sydney earlier this year, and thought the service was great.