I have made my choice
Despite being a gold-card holder with One World, I've decided to boycott the bastards and have booked myself onto Etihad for a MAN-SYD journey later this month. I'll avoid that hell-hole called LHR, and I won't miss it one bit. And the fares were very attractive too - QF, CX, BA and JAL were all quoting GBP5,500-ish for a 1-way J-class fare; Etihad from Manchester charged me GBP 2,400-ish and I also get a limousine at each end to get me to/from the airport.
Last time I flew to SYD in February, I booked onto QF2 from LHR with a BA shuttle from MAN. What happened? The shuttle was delayed for 4 hours and I missed my flight. BA didn't care a fig and if it wasn't for my One World status I'd have been left floundering.
Incidentally, I flew on the BA MAN-JFK service in May in J class, and there were 5 empty seats in the cabin. In World Traveller Plus there were two empty seats, which suggests that premium ticket sales weren't as disastrous as is being made out. In fact, World Traveller Plus would have been full except for my parent's failure to make the flight - they had booked onto the same flight in order to accompany my wife and I to New York, but a family emergency meant they had to cancel at the last minute. BA decided not to refund their fares, so there's a few more quid in their coffers.
I won't be connecting via LHR again when it comes to long-haul travel. I might miss out on some One World points, but I'm going to start building them up with other airlines.