Thanks for your replies everyone..they have been most useful..

guy betsy: no i have not earned those points yet, at the moment i am trying to weigh up the pros and cons of joining MPC and crediting those points to MPC vs other ff programs. Evidently it will be worth it as i should be able to attain gold status...whereas i would only be a silver with qantas...
i have not considered aa because they do not credit points in m class on some of the airlines that i am flying..and only 70 % on others...
i do not have enough info on the ba ff program...
any ideas..??