For me it is between QA and Cathay Pacific. However, if you say QA is a 5 star airline, than Cathay Pacific must be a 6 star airline, but neither one is quite as good as that. Cathay's in-flight service and features are slightly better and if you take into account hub airports which I have known well (Doha has a long way to go to catch up, long long way) then Cathay Pacific is by far the better 15 flight with shorter connecting flights added on for good measure.