I agree on the size v quality position. One is not indicative of the other.
In the last year I have done 14 sectors to/from USA and internal USA
Also a business Class trip to DPS and a trip to Noumea.
The USA carriers who were all large airlines ranged from terrible to just adequate. The problems included one of the World's largest cancelling a service and then telling us it was our problem that we missed the flight. They told us that 3 hours prior to scheduled departure. Same airline also demanded a wheel chair pax had to stand in a line to get his wheelchair
The business class trip to DPS and back was very poor. No in seat video and poor if not amateurish cabin service. Food choice and quality was also very poor
The outstanding sector was our return trip from Noumea in QF economy which was excellent. And that's from someone who is not recently a fan of the "Rat".
Back in the day of Govt airlines most were either International or domestic, but not both.In those days Qantas was one of the largest. Just looking at my B707 production list,over time Qantas had 13 B707 138s, 21 (+ 2 leased) B707 300s. They also had 4 L188s and 2 DC4s.That was a big fleet then.
There seems to be a tendency on PPrune to reinvent history.
Wunwing