"Dave, as for choice of scheme, thanks for your advice, but this is very complicated. I am likely to get QF gold by July after BAEC SWP closes and my points go to Qantas in April, and my wife will be BA silver in the US scheme quite soon. She has mucho miles, which would be devalued moving to BAEC europe. "

Once she is silver, The thing to do is move to the EU to get status, she can get Gold for only 800 tier credits and silver renewal for 300. Get gold and then move the account back to the US when you want to get a points redemption. Best of both worlds, the cheap mileage awards in the US scheme whilst a good chance of bagging a Gold membership card (800/600 for gold 400/300 for silver is a lot easier to attain than 1700/1200 and 700/500)

How will you get gold in Qantas? Are they going to just add the number of points you have with BA to the number you currently have in QF?

Dave