I was debating whether to add additional segment or two in Australia, but the flights are cheap and I thought it may be useful to save those segments for a rainy day if we want to change our routing while underway.

As for more miles, that's a good point, I'm traveling with wife and kids and they aren't so keen on the extra flight time. We're already clocking a ton of miles, especially if you include the pre-positioning flight.

Good catch! I hadn't realized how much difference it makes to fly under an AA flight number. For others' reference, here's the comparison.

Fare Base Class Bonus EQM multiplier
American A, P, D, I 100% 50% 2.00
Cathay C, D, I, J 100% 25% 1.50
Qatar C, D, I, J 100% 25% 1.50
British C, D, I, J 100% 25% 1.50
Japan C, D, J, X 100% 25% 1.50

Not seeing code shares for the following flights on Expert Flyer - please let me know if someone knows differently:

JL - NRT-DEL
CX - HKG-MLE
CX - MLE-HKG
CX - HKG-SYD
QR - SYD-DOH
QR - DOH-IST
[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the tip. Hard to track down all the possible events we can attend and good to have this on the radar! Would be fun if I can work it out.