Welcome to FlyerTalk. In general, laundering points through one of the hotel schemes is the only way to move them from one airline to another, albeit at a large devaluation. Have a look at this website which will guide you to the best way.

However, there seems to be a deeper misconception on your part about how the elite (i.e. Gold) levels work. They are based not on the number of points in your account, nor even on the number of points you earn, but on the number of points or credits you earn actually flying in a given year (or two or three, depending on the scheme). Transferring points may give you enough to book free tickets, but will never give you Gold status, for that you will have to fly.

If you earned all those miles flying (as opposed to with credit cards and such), and you repeat those flights next year, you may have enough to qualify for the lowest level of elite status, depending on your actual flights and classes. Go read a bunch of posts in the forum dedicated to your chosen scheme (Cathay) and learn enough to go back and see if this year's flight activity could have given you elite status had you earned Cathay miles for all those AA and BA flights.

Good Luck,

Michael