Yes, you have. BA Silver is a oneworld Sapphire status. BA only has Silver (Sapphire) and Gold (Emerald). They don't have a "Ruby" status level.

I would recommend against AY - even though they give you more miles for premium classes, their redemption levels *SUCK*. You need to earn a ridiculous amount of miles to get free tickets, and even with the relatively high class of service bonii they give, you'll get free flights much faster on other programs.

BA will get you to status quickly because you're based outside of the UK, but as you already mentioned, the BA miles you earn cheapo tickets are hardly worth mentioning. Also, their redemption levels aren't great, but better than AY.

Have you looked at Qantas? For your upcoming trip to Japan, you'll earn 440 status credits, which will get you to QF Silver (Ruby). You need 700 SCs to reach Gold (Sapphire), and 600 to requalify in subsequent years. Platinum (Emerald) is yours for only 1400/1200. The good part with QF is that they also give reduced SCs and full miles on cheap tickets (including all revenue fare classes on IB and AY, cheap tickets on BA earn reduced SCs and 25% miles). Based on your travel pattern, you should easily make Gold (assuming two long-haul roundtrips in Business or Premium Eco), or even Platinum (assuming four longhaul roundtrips).

Details on status credits are here:

http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/program/privileges

Details on mileage earnings are here:

http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/...m/terms#jump23

Before someone else says it - the redemption levels on Qantas also aren't great, but, like BA, still better than AY.

In your case, I would probably go with either BA or QF.