With 70 flights a year, you will definitely attain platinum status with AA . Based on the profile you give, all flights will be eligable for mileage accrual and may be all eligable for full mileage accrual and also possibly eligable for 1.5 qualifying points per mile flown

As a platinum member you will earn 100% bonus on miles and get a 500 mile min earning

Working on 72 flights ( since it divides by 6 ) and based on being a platinum member. Whilst you attain status earning will be a bit less

1/3 being SYD-MEL and 1/6 being MEL-ADL

36 x SYD-MEL/ADL-MEL in economy

Since < 500 miles

Min mile guarantee of 500 will apply plus will get 500 bonus for platinum => earning will be 1000 miles per flight.

Total 36,000 miles earned

This is same earning as Qantas gives


12 MEL-BNE


MEL-BNE is 857 miles

Assuming you are in Y,B,H, or K class you will earn 100% base miles
If in a lower earning class, you will earn 50% miles

BAsed on your desription of fully flexible or flexi travel, likely to be 100% miles earning

at 100% earning - will earn 859 plus 859 bonus = 1718 per flight
at 50% earning - will earn 500 + 500 = 1000 per flight

so will earn on 12 flights between 12,000 and 20,616 miles


12 MEL-PER in business class

MEL-PER is 1682 base miles plus 1682 bonus miles plus 421 miles for busines class

so earning is 3785 miles per flight
total on 12 flights is 45,420 miles

total for year is between 93,468 and 101,988 credited to AAdvantage as a AA platinum member depending on the MEL-BNE class

If you did same travel as a QF Gold member you would earn

1000 per flight on MEL-SYD/ADL = 36,000 total
1504 per flight on MEL-BNE = 18,048 total

1682 base on MEL-PER plus 421 business bonus plus 75% gold bonus of 1262 = 3365 => 40,380 total

Total earning is 94,428

As an AA member, your actual mileage earning will be about the same or slightly higher depending on the MEL-BNE class

AA redemption costs are generally much better than QF's , so I would have no hesitation in recommending that you switch to AA. You should pop to AA site and see redemption costs and compare. Just a few decent options from Melbourne are

Business class from Melbourne to anywhere else in Australia or new zealand is 17,500 AA miles one way
Business Class one way to Europe is 60k AA miles vs 128k QF miles
1st Class one way to Europe is 80k AA miles vs 192k QF miles
Business class one way to USA is 62.5k AA miles vs 96k-112k QF Miles
1st class one was to USA is 72.5k AA miles vs 144k-168k QF miles
Business class one way to Singapore 35k AA miles vs 60k QF miles
1st class one way to Singapre 45k AA miles vs 90k QF miles

On top of that, as long as you avoid flying on BA, you will pay no fuel surcharges on the awards when redeemed using AA miles. On long haul flights, QF's surcharges can be very high e.g. $368 one way on a business class MEL-LHR . So not only would you pay 68,000 additional miles for the flight but you would also have a $368 additional cash payment to make if using QF miles

With your travel pattern, I think you will be well ahead by switching to AA and can get about a 100% improvement in award values over staying with QF if you are redeeming in business or 1st class.

Obviously, your mileage earning will be initially lower since you will not have status with AA , so will not be initially earning the 100% bonuses until you reach platinum.

I would suggest signing up for the AA Platinum challenge some time from June 16 at a point where you will have 2 Perth trips within 3 months of each other. 2 business class r/ts to Perth can complete the AA platinum challenge and get you straight to Platinum status with AA. Just make sure to sign up for platinum challenge starting on or after 16 June so that it ensures you will be platinum for next year and so only have to worry about status renewal as from 1 Jan 2014

For the credit card spending, if you have accrual going to Starwood , then these can then be transferred to AA at 20k SPG gives 25K AA miles