One of my mates is doing a LONE4 soon (at least I assume it's a LONE4, he just told me it's a oneworld RTW ticket), and he asked me for advice on which program he should join. His itinerary:

QF PER-SIN 2421
QF SIN-LHR 6752
AA LHR-MIA 4437
AA MIA-CUN 531
AA CUN-MIA 531
AA MIA-DCA 920
AA JFK-SEA 2421
AA PDX-DFW 1616
AA DFW-LAX 1235 (could be booked on QF codeshare?)
QF LAX-SYD 7488 (could be booked on AA codeshare?)
QF SYD-PER 2041 (could be booked on AA codeshare?)

He doesn't have a points-earning credit card, and isn't likely to do a lot of flying in the near future (though a one-way trip from Australia to Canada is a distinct possibility) so earning status isn't important to him. It's all about points.

My thoughts are that Qantas Frequent Flyer and AAdvantage aren't particularly good, since neither allows any earnings in L class on the other carrier. Joining both could be acceptable, but then his miles are split between the two programs. AsiaMiles might be ok, since it gets 100% on AA and 50% on QF, but their redemption levels are higher. Are there any other possibilities? I see that Finnair give 100% on both QF and AA, but I couldn't find any information about their redemption levels.

It's possible that he could rebook flights on codeshares where available (DFW-LAX, LAX-SYD, and SYD-PER I guess) if that helped.

Any thoughts? Maybe sign him up for the AA Gold/Platinum challenge (by my calculations he could just make it to platinum if he rebooked all possible flights on AA codeshares)? I don't know. Help would be appreciated!

Steve