I found this article from Australian Business Traveller quite interesting. It appears that Qantas is looking at possibly allowing QF flyers to use their Qantas Club points to upgrade on AA metal and vice versa!

from: http://www.ausbt.com.au/using-qantas...rlines-flights

With Qantas cosying up to American Airlines through the duo’s latest joint venture partnership, one question on the minds of business travellers is whether they’ll be able to use their Qantas points to upgrade to business class or even first class on American Airlines flights between Sydney and Los Angeles.

Qantas Frequent Flyer members headed to the US can currently book a points-based upgrade only the Qantas-operated Airbus A380 or Boeing 747 flights.

But that could change, with Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce telling Australian Business Traveller at a join Qantas/American Airlines briefing that he is “absolutely looking at that (upgrades on American Airlines flights)”.
Qantas International CEO Gareth Evans had more to say: “We’ll continue to investigate all of these opportunities to better align the product offering (between Qantas and American), so when American Airlines passengers travel on Qantas and vice versa, they'll have the same experience.”
American’s own Senior Vice President for International Strategic Alliances, Kurt Stache, continued by highlighting that “these policies evolve over time, so we'll start with this one (being no reciprocal frequent flyer upgrades), and go from there.”

Qantas members may one day upgrade to first class on AA's Sydney-LA flights... Qantas members may one day upgrade to first class on AA's Sydney-LA flights..."