Gawd. This is where being slavishly loyal to one airline / alliance when you don't always have the budget to fly J really comes unstuck.

When I went to Aus in October, I think my ticket was less than that - my TA managed to put together a very nice ex-MAN trip including one QF domestic flight, using AY, QF and CX in J. Good flights and a 600 TP haul in total, but I was lucky to find that.

I find spreading things round all three alliances helps me out because I don't really mind where the miles go. This weekend, I'm in India. Flying BA would have given me BA Gold, and flying Skyteam would have given me KL Platnium, but unfortunately neither had reasonably priced options, so I've ended up on Lufthansa / Swiss with *A where I don't really need the points... but figure they will get used eventually. So each year, once I've achieved a decent enough level of status on all three alliances (ie: a level providing lounge access), it's all about price and convenience.

For a trip to Aus I would probably even sacrifice the miles/points altogether and go with a non-aligned airline if that was the only way of a great value J fare. It's just too brutal a trip to do any other way.