Thanks for the help everybody (especially wanafly... that was more comprehensive than i could imagine!). To answer someone's question, the majority of my travel will probably be overseas, and a majority of that will likely be to Asia (HK, China, India, etc...). Also, most of the time I would buy a Y and hope for an upgrade to C/J (with the occasional C/J to F hopes). Seems to me that the way to go would be oneworld, with AA as my domestic program. Then I could fly BA to Europe and CX to Asia (I've flown CX many times, and love them, plus my mom is a MP Diamond, and the service she gets is incredible, and that FC HK lounge... I could live there!). I understand that I would get my status match when crediting to AA for these flight, but my question is can I still use my "AA miles" when trying to get a miles upgrade on CX or BA? Or do the OW partners not really use your "home" airline miles to upgrade on the flight you are taking?

Again, thanks for the help! I think I'm going to enjoy being an FT'er if everyone is this friendly!