[Lindsay Wilson]

Is it worthwhile for me to pay the money to join the Qantas scheme

I can see we still have some convincing to do that the AA FF program will be better for you, Lazy Emu...the simple answer is no, don't join QF. Joining AAdvantage costs nothing and is simple over the internet.

I would most likely redeem any points on QF - BA advise to use the Qantas one.

That's because you can't join the BA Exec Club as you're an Australian resident - and you take the advice of an airline over people on a bulletin board who are here to help you and have advised of an excellent legal scheme to give you advanced eite status... :?

Is it pointless to join the scheme of a carrier that you are not flying with and/or don't want to redeem on ?

No, it's pointless joining a FF scheme like QF where after all your RTW flights, you're still a Bronze member (maybe reached the dizzy heights of Silver) and have earned no bonuses and have barely enough FF points to fly anywhere decent.

Compare this with AA, where based on your proposed itinerary (assuming you take our advice by flying on the right airlines and get a positioning flight in there somewhere), you'll be AA Plat (uquivalent to QF Gold or Oneworld Sapphire status) by the time you hit JFK, or at worst on your next flight JFK/LHR.

The AA elite thingie sounds nice. Assuming worst case points earning with Qantas what might I get? Ok, the tables make it clear that at least in the case of AA, points are discounted across airlines when earning them. Are they also discounted when redeeming?

Ah, we are getting there. Let me calculate it for you. Discount economy fares are discounted earning, but at no worse than the QF FF program. Burning points is better under the AA scheme - using Alan in CBR's correct information, 20,000 AA miles gives you an award flight between any two cities in Oz/New Zealand (AA treat us as one country). 35,000 in Business.

Tell me what are the corresponding point requirements under the QFF program?? You don't have to think - they're much more... :roll:

I can tell you, had I known about the AA FF program before I joined QF (February 1987) and subsequently got high elite status; I'd have been an AA Executive Platinum member for years now and be reaching the 1MM (one million miles flown) mark. AA know how to reward their top tier FF's; I'm not that convinced as a top tier QFF'er.