Welcome to the forum. The more Aussies the better
Important: Keep all your physical boarding pass's and ticket information/emails/e-tickets
Some low cost fares can earn nil miles/points in your FFP, especially if not flown on your own airline.
The point about freq flyer programs (ffp) is that you can earn & burn(use) miles on partner airlines
Look here
Deciding on a Oneworld Frequent Flyer Program? Help is here.
Need advice on which *A FF scheme to join? - please post here
AA freq flyer program can be used for AA & AS
Alaska AS freq flyer program can be used for AA & AS
Qantas QF freq flyer program can be used for AA & AS
http://www.americanairlines.com.au/i...erAirlines.jsp
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners
http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/partners/airline
Avianca Lifemiles & Aegean A3 are popular
Star Alliance - Home - Star Alliance freq flyer program for some in Australia.
Be careful about expiry. For most ffp's you need activity to keep a ffp account alive. Eligible activity every 18 months is a common requirement. For an infrequent flyer this is an issue to be very aware of. Other than flying hotels, rental car, credit cards, shopping and other ways can keep accounts alive.
Living in Australia that makes keeping a QF account alive easy by spending $31 at Woolworths (
www.everydayrewards.com.au) Also join QF ffp through that site. Otherwise it costs ~AUD$80. However AA & AS are better ffp's than QF due to QF high points needed & high cash surcharges on award flights.
The issue will be joining a ffp now and crediting past flights. That will take some research. Many ffp's allow for past flights if you were a member at the time of the flight. Not being a ffp member at the time is an issue.
From
https://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyns/joinff
You can even earn points for eligible flights you've taken up to 30 days before the date of which you joined. Find out more about the benefits you can enjoy as a Frequent Flyer.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...-overview.aspx
https://www.alaskaair.com/MileagePlan/retrocredit
Requests must meet these criteria:
Submitted at least 7 days after Alaska flight date (or 14 days after partner flight date)
Received within 11 months of travel
Travelers must have been a Mileage Plan™ member at time of travel
https://www.aa.com/AAdvantage/reques...obileUAFlag=AA
Use this form to request mileage for flights flown:
Within the last 12 months as long as you were enrolled in the AAdvantage program at the time of your flights
So for AA & AS looks like QF is the best option.
There may be other airlines on
www.oneworld.com that have AS as a partner that accept retro join/crediting
Edit:
Now this is interesting. US Airways has merged/taken over American Airlines and will leave StarAlliance on 30 March 2014. On 31 March 2014 US Airways will be in the www.oneworld.com alliance, as is AA & QF. Some time in the future US miles will become AA miles
http://www.usairways.com/en-US/divid...mberguide.html
Retroactive credit
- You can request credit for past flights on US Airways, Star Alliance member airlines partners and other eligible partner airlines.*
- You can only request credit for American Airlines flights flown on or after January 7, 2014.
- All requests must be made within 6 months of the date you completed travel.
- New members can get credit for transactions completed up to 6 months before they enroll in Dividend Mile
United, AC & AA can be credited to US Airways. This means you loose the AS flight miles, but you have 6 of your 7 flights in 1 ffp
Great Circle Mapper
If you also join AA that can be used to collect miles from eligible QF flights until the merger is 100% completed. But miles expiry will be an issue. AA miles can be used in Australia on Qantas.
Edit 2
US Airways no longer accept new signs up as 20 March 2015 (AA - US merge)
Edit 3
For AirBerlin topbonus (AB) "For new members, miles are credited for flights taken up to three months before registering for topbonus.."
Linked post