(1) What is your home airport? MEL
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?.Discount economy, occasionally full fare
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 30-40K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?.None
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?.Free lounge access, redemption
(6) Which routes do you fly most often?.Australia to Asia, ocassionally to Africa
(7) Preferred Airlines? Whatever works, but SQ and TG are often the most convenient for the destinations I most frequently travel to.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?.Work. I can choose the airlines, but not the class.

My story is that I recently got a job that involves a bit of travel, mainly to developing countries, of which most are in Asia and occasionally Africa. I'll be doing three to four trips a year, around 11-15K each trip - so around 35-40K a year.

I'm pretty new to this, so apologies if I'm asking a dumb question and/or don't know some of the acronyms or lingo! I've looked up as much as I can to find the answers, but could use some expert advice.

Since I'm going to be spending a lot of time hanging around airports, lounge access is the priority for me. Of course, free upgrades to business are also a big deal, but I'm realistic enough to understand those will happen exceedingly rarely - probably never. I'll live with that!

I've already worked out that getting to the necessary Gold level - and staying there - with any FF program is unlikely on the miles I travel. Except, of course, with A3. That works out neatly with the airlines I'm most likely to be using for my Asian destinations, SQ and TG. (If anyone has any advice to the contrary, feel free to tell me). Oneworld (and then flying with Qantas often) would have worked too, especially since QF and Emirates can get me to Africa via Dubai, but there doesn't seem to be the same shortcut to Gold (or emerald) as Star has with A3..

I'm flying to Dhaka from Melbourne via Singapore with SQ next month and a few months later to Myanmar via Bangkok with TG - that's enough to get to *G right there. Voila, lounge access (and there are three Star lounges in my home airport of Melbourne alone).

Basically, I'm happy enough with that. Free travel with work is great, and getting into the lounges while I'm doing that makes it all a little easier. I know I'm never going to get upgraded with A3, but since I'm unlikely to get to gold with any other FF program that's not really a problem. It's never going to happen anyway. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

So all well and good. But now I'm wondering about redeeming my accrued miles. I'm happy to put all my miles onto M&B, but I suspect I'm not getting the best bang for my buck. I have a wife and a toddler that would love a holiday to Asia and FF miles may be able to contribute. I've compared redemption charts for A3, SQ and a few others - A3 does seem the worst of the lot, but not by very much. But I'm a newbie to this, so there are probably a lot of factors I don't realise.

So I guess I have a couple of questions. One is, once I get to to *G with A3 should I be moving to another FF program that offers better value on redemptions? And, if I do that, can I still use the lounges with my A3 *G membership? I've read a lot on the net about not being able to use the benefits of one Star membership while putting the points on to another, but it seems to be inconclusive on lounge access. Star's policy online just says you need a *G card and a BP with a Star airline, but I guess that may not be the whole story..

Any expert advice for me?

Cheers.