for your situation, the main benefit for AA is the 100% bonus miles when flying AA.

if you are based in US, i think it may make sense for the switch. but i am not sure if you should split your consumer miles. your account may be too fragmented.
i think a redemption of jfk-mnl award in F will cost you some 180-200k asiamiles, but only 125k AADV miles. so it is cheaper, on top of the fact that the miles comes a lot faster to you.

as to your question
1) the difference is small, but MPO Gold gets you waitlisting and priority on CX inventory
2) yes, 25k Y-J award is for full fare Y only, otherwise, it takes some 50-80k or so to upgrade, i think.
3) the 25k/40k upgrade is for ALL cx segments RT. i.e. jfk-hkg-mnl-hkg-jfk, all the way, for J-F upgrade you have forfeited the hkg-mnl segments. for an ex-USA ticket
4) the normal OW awards are still available, whether ex-hkg or ex-usa. these specials deals we discussed are on top of the normal awards.
so for ex-hkg award it is roughly the same for both programs, but for ex-usa award you use a los less miles (125k for F to MNL)

ONE more point (for chris as well). asiamiles allows mileage upgrade on all fare, but i don't think aadv provides such option


[This message has been edited by pegasus8228 (edited 01-06-2003).]