transhuman Welcome to FT
Award flights are a long way from free. You pay real taxes on all. Some ffp's, like BA & QF, have carrier imposed surcharges on many awards. AA awards on BA has carrier imposed surcharges. Worth checking on LAN if they have award surcharges.
Having multiple ffp’s with low balances is never a good idea. You never get enough miles to be of use before they expire. FFP’s are for the long term. The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit those flights to does not need to be the same. This is what ff partners are all about.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nt-expire.html
USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit cards/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s
LA & AA are oneworld and partners (as is QF). Pick one. Very little (nil?) comparisons of LA ffp to others. QF is a poor ffp. Unless you get QF points from credit cards and/or fly eligible JQ flights a lot. Look at post 330 here for AA vs QF award cost & surcharges,
LAN premium = Oneworld ruby. The lowest status = AA gold & QF silver. Has some benefits, but not lounge access.
https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/my-onew...s-premium#tier
https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/ruby-privileges
UA is Star Alliance. You need activity every 18 months to stop miles expiring. Worth keeping as your Star Alliance ffp
DL is Skyteam and a Virgin Australia partner. DL miles do not expire, but refereed to a Sky pesos here on FT.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...29-2016-a.html