American Airlines granted approval for Qantas partnership once rejected by the Obama administration

Likely yes

The worst airline flight I was ever on was with Qantas from Sydney to LA. The seats were like concrete, which is sooo much fun for a 13-hour flight. It was a daytime flight and for just under two hours in the middle of it, I didn't see a single flight attendant, even with having a seat near a galley. For the final two hours, they made countless announcements bragging about how Qantas and US Customs and Immigration had a new and improved arrivals and clearance procedure that would "whisk" us all through very quickly. However, when we arrived, we went through an excruciatingly slow process to get through customs and immigration and if our connecting flight hadn't been late arriving in LA, we would have missed its departure.

I wrote to Qantas and told them that the only aircraft seats I'd ever rode in that were less comfortable were the Martin-Baker ejection seat in an F-4D Phantom II and nylon webbing troop seats in a C-130. (I've flown in the latter several more times since than and have revised my opinion. They are more comfortable than those Qantas seats.) I also disputed their claims about "their" new arrivals process.

I got an incredibly snotty reply telling me that they had "nothing" to do with the process and that the blame was all America's and that they have the "most modern seats in the industry". Imagine my surprise, therefore, when they made a big announcement a few months later about how they were replacing all of the seats in their 747s.

I'd rather swim than fly with Qantas again.