I've got a few america west flights in deeply discounted tickets (lax-phx-slc-phx-lax) .. is it worth joining flightfund at all for this or is there another airline I can credit these to... if they get miles? :)

You can credit them directly to US Airways or Virgin Atlantic. Northwest is also in the program until 3/31.

Until the AWA and US programs are merged, you won't be able to credit AWA miles to other Star Alliance carriers.