All sorts of great advice here, particularly by dukerau. I'll just add a few thoughts on credit cards and which airlines to shoot for if you have a choice. Look at Glossary under Help at the top of the page here to figure out what all these initials stand for:
1. There are all sorts of AA credit cards that offer 50K or sometimes more miles for initial spending (e.g., $3,000 within three months). Getting one type of AA cc and its bonus does not preclude getting another type and its bonus. But you can't repeat the bonuses for the same type of AA card within 18 months of closing it (or something to that effect). The Citi forum under Credit Cards here at FT has all sorts of useful discussions of these options.
2. You can get various cc sign-up/initial spend bonuses that you can then convert to SQ miles via Starwood Amex (both business and personal) points; Chase Ultimate Rewards via its Sapphire, Ink and other chards; Citi Thank You points via its Prestige, Everyday and other cards; and Amex Membership Rewards points via its cards that are not affiliated with a specific hotel chain (such as Starwood), airline or certain other companies. Check out the Chase, Citi and Amex forums under the more general Credit Cards heading for more information. (Though perhaps for Starwood Amex, you'd look at the Starwood forum under the Hotels heading.)
3. EK F seats and its F experience are reportedly great. Alaska credit card sign-up/initial spending bonuses of 25K each for personal and business cards are a good way of accruing miles that then can be used to score EK awards. Lately, though, there have been reports of it being tough to sign up for Alaska ccs repeatedly.
4. Beggars can't be choosers, if we can even use that saying when it comes to getting F tickets.
But if you have a choice, SQ and CX (both of which I've flown in F with my wife) are superb all-around airlines, with SQ being slightly preferable in F in my humble opinion, especially if you can bag adjoining middle suites on its Airbus 380 planes. From what I've read about EK, it may a bit behind in terms of seat roominess and sometimes service, but still overall great. EY in F is also supposed to be great in terms of the flight experience, though less so in terms of its lounges and customer service. Its A380 F "Apartments" (including JFK-AUH) are reportedly the best F produce out there, but right now it seems you can't get them with AA miles.
5. By searching through Trip Reports (under Community) or simply googling for videos and reports on F on Singapore, Cathay, Etihad or Emirates, you can get a good sense of these products.
Good luck!