yes, The Marco Polo Club (or, in short, The Club) is separate from Asia Miles...at least it's the way I see it...as an elite member of The Club, you don't really get any benefits in Asia Miles...no elite bonus, no priority in getting awards, etc...but you get the same membership number in both programs and I think internally they should be keeping the record together...just that they try to show them as two separate programs...

and, they would anticipate most people to join only Asia Miles and not necessarily The Club...only the more frequent travelers would do so because there's an application fee of US$50 to join The Club...Asia Miles is free...

regarding getting credits in two programs...the only situation in which you can earn status miles/sectors (Club Miles / Sectors) in The Club and have the actual mileage credited to another oneworld program is with BA's Executive Club, or at least it's the only one that I'm aware of...but even in this case, they have stated explicitly that you won't get status with the Executive Club...and you have to be a resident of certain countries to be eligible for this arrangement...

I think The Club runs by membership year...and, in fact, I'm still not 100% how it works exactly...I've heard that, for example, when you have 30k Club Miles or 20 Club Sectors and reach Silver, the count will be reset and starts from 0 again...you will then have to earn 60k Club Miles or 40 Club Sectors within the next 12 months to get to the next (Gold) level, and not really the incremental 30k/20...but, as I said, I'm still not sure...

I'm still kind of new to the programs (The Club / Asia Miles)...and I think their rules are not really that well spelled out...