Alright so this sounds too good to be true. Supposing I do this SYD-SIN-SYD leg on WT+ .. SYD-SIN is 3915 miles so outbound that's 5873 QPs, then inbound another 5873 but you get your 100% elite status bonus on top of that so that's a grand total of 17619 QPs? Which obviously gets me the plat status.

Now I take my LONE5 as above, using AA codeshares on juicy segments like HEL-JFK and JFK-SYD, which nets me about another 64,000 QPs. Finally I'll be taking another SYD-LAX flight later in the year, which assuming I use AA codeshare gives me about an additional 30,000 QPs in economy, and thus EXP status.

I get EXP in October sometime, and it therefore expires on Feb 29, 2008. Even if I don't take any AA flights in 2007, my EXP gets downgraded to Plat until Feb 28, 2009. So I have oneworld Emerald/Sapphire effectively for 3 years.

What's the catch?