How long is living in UK going to be for? A few years or for ever?

You can join QF ffp for free via www.everydayrewards.com.au (Woolworth)
Be carefully about expiry QF points. No eligible activity in 18 months and they are gone.

With QF is has, until recently, been relatively easy to get gold status (OW Sapphire), which has Q club access.But you need OW Emerald (QF plat / BA?) for wider lounge access. BA is generally harder to get status on discount fares.

BA have family pooling which may be of interest. BA short haul awards are good value to some.

For long haul awards AA wins (unless the AA FFP changes a lot). AA ffp is best OW ffp for many people. AA has the plat challenge for faster status acheivement.

For BA vs QF vs AA look at the links in post 2 of http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html (where this thread may get moved to)