While I'm certainly no *A expert and I'm sure thats what you're looking for, I'm in a somewhat similar situation. I'm more of a SkyTeam and OneWorld guy, in fact, I can't even remember the last time I flew on a *A carrier. What I'm going to do is probably credit to BMI. They give a 2x miles for C flights for both redeemable and elite miles, meaning the LAX-AKL flight for me will net over 35,000 miles. Going from no status, thats enough for at least silver in their program and almost enough to do a miles+cash C redemption to Europe from the US. I might try a status match to at least start with Gold and use this trip to requalify in almost one shot.

Hope that helped.