An interesting difference in the Oneworld awards from different airlines, if this is really true (and the rare case of AA being worse than the alternatives). QF uses the stopover-to-stopover mileage -- intervening transit mileage does not count. LHR-SIN-AKL-SYD and LHR-SIN-SYD is the same mileage on QF if there is no stopover in AKL; it sounds like AA counts the point-to-point mileage including transits and not just stopovers. This can make a big difference in some cases! I've spent some time clarifying this with QF so I'm certain this is how it works when using QF miles (and I presumed it was the same on AA, silly me).

I can understand the various airlines having differences in their own awards, but different ways to calculate the Oneworld awards? Why bother calling them Oneworld????