Initially I saw this and thought - WOW however when I looked at it further hmmm...

So to get 100 AirTran points I would need to take 100 domestic one ways with connecting flights counting as 1 flight regardless of number of connections, and I would need to fly all these segments in 1 year.

In contrast - if I flew United/US Airways domestically within the 48 (for comparison) 100 flight would earn me AT LEAST 50,000 miles thanks to the minimum miles guarantee. In reality a fair few of these flight would be more than 1 segment and / or longer than 500 miles (just as AirTran's would). If I did these all in one year I would also earn an elite bonus of AT LEAST 23750 miles (qualifying for Silver and Gold status from segments). A return ticket from Anywhere in the US to Anywhere in Australia (well capital cities anyway) with a free stopover is 60,000 miles. So 100 same year segments on US/US = 73750 miles min. (So worst case is that you need 77 UA/US flight segments to get the RT ticket).

So to compare:

100 one ways in 1 year on AirTran gets you a RT US-AU
No ability to earn points over a number of years towards this reward longer flights do not earn anything additional.
Connecting flights earn you no more.
Each dollar spent on a credit card gets you 1/100000th of the ticket.

77 segments (or less) in 1 year on United get you a RT US-AU
Can earn this over a longer period of time or by taking flights greater than 500 miles in length.
Connecting flights will earn you more.
Each dollar spent on a credit card gets you 1/60000th of the ticket.

All in all the A+ system looks pretty bad in comparison to MP for getting a free trip to Australia.

Now don't get me wrong - I think this is an excellent move on AirTran's part and (along with the fact they have an elite program and business class) will make me far more likely to choose them over Southwest, ATA, JetBlue etc - I just don't think I will get carried away about it as a way to get to Oz. I am sure someone with more energy than I can figure out a routing to some obscure location where the majors charge 100,000+ miles where A+ might be a better deal but still the fact you only get 1 credit per flight not segment and the expiration policy means I won't be choosing AirTran over the majors unless the fare difference is considerable (and I know it is sometimes - I do fly them occasionally - I am an A+ Elite after all )