Originally Posted by Mwenenzi

But if you get an eligible AA earning fare bucket on the QF flight you will have the AA miles to get you back to Oz and have AA miles left over. Look at AA miles & QF points needed LAX-MEL. With QF you must pay a lot of $$$ for fese/surcharges for the econ rewards flight (a long way from "free"). With AA only need to pay a few $ for real taxes Some examples here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qanta...-lhr-july.html