Yes, the answer was about a partner award. The question perhaps got asked in the wrong thread. AUS-AKL, SYD-AUS would be a terrible oneworld award redemption compared to the All Partner scheme: 100/130/180 (oneworld) versus 75/125/145K (partner/zone). that was assuming AKL-SYD is an open jaw since the flight was not mentioned. For it not to be an open jaw, a oneworld award would still not be mandatory-- just add the QF award AKL-SYD at 10/17.5/17.5(noF). The partner version would still be best in Y or F: 85/142.5/162.5K.

Anyway, yes using a oneworld award via Asia one-way would mean counting all those extra miles, about 4000, which would probably bump up a category. So let's see: AUS-LAX-AKL-SYD-SIN-HKG-LAX-AUS comes to about 23,000 miles. The oneworld cost of that would be 120/150/230K. The partner-award version (again, no AKL-SYD) was 97.5/152.5/185. Oddly enough, for Business Class only, the oneworld is cheaper. Adding in a AKL-SYD award on QF would cost 10/17.5/17.5(no F). The multi-award partner scheme would still be cheaper in Y and F.

if I had a question about redeeming on a oneworld partner and I didn't know the award types, I would ask it in this thread too. I often wonder if the Thread Title ought to be changed. "oneworld Awards Using American Airlines Miles" is only unambiguous if you already know the difference between oneworld and partner awards... particularly since there is no sticky for All Partner awards...