well I would consider re-reading kiwi flyers post #5 above and plan accordingly for your future asd well as the soon to be 3 big flights. You see, while it's not necessarily about how MANY miles you have, it certainly is easier to travel when you have many in one program, because when it comes time to one day redeem them, you need options and depth. For example, for me to fly to Australia I could get there using the miles from a program with 80+k in it right now rather than having say 3 programs with like 30k in them that I have to wait and keep adding to over time.

Consider what you think you want and go from there. I think the AA option is fine but hey, that's just me.