Apologies in advance if this has been posted before, but a search didn't turn up anything (and I wasn't even sure how to describe it for a search!).

Anyways, I am US-based and have done most of my travel with AA. It's mostly domestic travel but with enough international J travel to be a PLT with AA. However, some of the benefits of being a oneworld elite (lounge access namely) only apply on my international trips since AA sells Admiral's Club memberships.

As such, I'm thinking of switching to BA or QF so that when I inevitably become a oneworld elite next year, I'll have domestic lounge access since I won't be holding an AA elite card but a BA or QF one. (EDIT: I'm looking for domestic lounge access since frequently our boss makes us fly to a central point before we continue to a client site - example: next week I'm going NYC-DFW (where everyone is meeting)-LAX. So sometimes (thanks to this dumb preference of his), I can get stuck in an airport for long periods of time waiting for others to meet up.)

Has anyone else done such a thing and, if so, how did you choose your overseas program?