Liam,

If you have an overseas address (you can borow one from a mate), you can use that in ur application form for QF FFP and you do not need to pay the membership fees altogether. However this means you don't get the membership card, but hey no biggie. I think you're quite right about the recent changes making QF FFP rather unattractive though as they've made it practically impossible to get upgrades, unless you're QF Plat or Gold which in themselves are harder to achieve than a lot of other airlines (except maybe SQ PPS Club), and diminished the value of mileage accrued.

I believe you've already been told of the AAdvantage Platinum Challenge when we were chatting on msn - get 10k points (points are based on what fares you pay) within 3 months and you get AA Plat straightaway. This shouldn't be too hard as you travel on J and full Y a lot. AA Plat entitles you to oneworld sapphire benefits such as lounge access and priority check in. Simplest way to sign up for the plat challenge is by ringing up the AAdvantage office in the US as the Australian office would probably tell you that they can't do it. You can start ur challenge either on the 1st or 16th of every month so sign up just b4 u travel. Renewal is via the normal method of accruing 50k miles or points (whichever you achieve first) though. AA also requires you to travel at least 4 sectors in a year on AA to renew elite status (Challenges are exempted) however I've been told that they don't really enforce this rule. Look at the AAdvantage sticky for more info.

You might also want to check out the CX scheme - AsiaMiles for miles and Marco Polo Club for status. Joining both is imperative unless you want only miles and not status or vice versa. CX is known to treat their elites, and even other oneworld elites very well.