I would suggest the AA Plat challenge is the way to go. Unfortunately most programs have greatly reduced the FF benefits of LONEx fares.

He won't get much for the first few QF flights, so he could join QF as well and dump the points there, but as an Aussie he will need to pay the QF FF joining fee and that may not be warranted by the points.

He will get to Plat pretty quickly once he starts the AA flights. Plat means he gets 100% bonus on mileage which will help acrue points much faster. Definaetly change the QF flights to AA codeshares if he is able, and then score more miles into his AA account since he will be plat by then.

Also, being plat he will get access to the QP's back home. I don't think he will get into the joint AC/QP in LAX if AA Plat status and on an AA flight. But probably better to get the bonus miles than lounge access if he doesn;t know what he is missing in the lounge .

He will get to use the SYD QP on his return which will be nice for a shower etc before connecting to PER.

And from PER, the AA awards are great value. Its 20K points for a domestic award anywhere in Australia/NZ, so he can get to AKL from PER for 20K points in Y, or 35K points in J. Great value given that he is earning at 100% bonus on the AA flight numbers on this trip. Much better value for QF awards.

He may even score the odd upgrade as a AA Plat on some of the AA domestic sectors.