Originally Posted by jrobin
For those who fly a lot, Dave is perfectly correct. However, for those of us who do not fly as much, another "benefit" depending on your future flying pattern, is that retaining QF Gold once you have it may be easier than retaining AA Platinum. AA Platinum is easy to get via challenge but harder to retain than QF Gold for some both because of official rules, and because QF has been known to bend the rules re retaining Gold status. You may be trading off between [extra miles/award flights in short term and no US lounge access] and [US lounge access in short term and all Oneworld lounge access after Plat status expires].
Actually that statement is not quite true. QF Gold is more difficult to get than AA Plat when flying in Y, however once you start flying J or F, QF status is easier to obtain.
Take for example an M (average discount economy fare) class fare on QF between SYD and LHR. Credited to AA, you would require roughly 5 returns on AA to get AA Plat, whereas 6 returns on QF to do the same. Go for an H, K or W fare and the difference is even more pronounced as it would take 2.5 return legs to keep AA Plat, yet still 6 trips on QF. Go for a full Y fare and AA needs less than two trips, whereas QF still requires 3 trips. J and F are a different ball game with QF status being easy to get.
The moral of the story for those wanting status is:
Discount flyers should stick with AA, whereas premium cabin flyers credit to QF.
There are many other advantages of crediting to AA over QF, and a simple search on the QF board will reveal all.