Originally Posted by kkua
My 2 cents if you want full EQM on SkyTeam/NW:
1) fly NW to Guangzhou (Canton) and take CAN-MEL via CZ
2) get yourself to Seoul Incheon via NW and ICN-MEL via KE
3) max your EQM to Singapore and go SIN-MEL via AF (last I checked they codeshare with SQ)
4) get to KUL (fly to SIN and short hop on the shuttle) and fly KL to MEL (they codeshare with MH)
Options 3 and 4 will earn no WP miles on the codeshare flights. Flying Blue members could earn miles on the AF/KL codeshares, but NW will not let you earn miles on SkyTeam-partner codeshares operated by an airline which is not part of SkyTeam.
Oh, and the AF flights to Australia are codeshared with QF (Qantas), not SQ.
My suggestion continues to be Korean Air:
Either fly NW to DTW-NRT-ICN and then ICN-MEL on KE, or fly NW to one of KE's North American gateways (LAX, SFO, LAS, SEA, ORD, ATL, JFK, IAD, DFW, HNL, ANC, YYZ, YVR) and fly KE via ICN from there.
Full miles, relatively little hassle and probably a halfway affordable fare as well, especially if you break the trip into two tickets (i.e. DTW-SEA-DTW on NW, SEA-ICN-MEL-ICN-SEA on KE).