I know this infuriates me as well. I'm about to undertake a *A trip to an Asian city which would be a longer journey and not connecting to a *A airline from Hong Kong if I was to go on NZ.

I have no problem with NZ offering less airpoints on LAX-LHR, HKG-LHR or even whole trip AKL-LON compared to the *A or non *A partner alternatives (being UA, VS, SQ, TG basically).

However, why I should I get shockingly low earnings flying *A from London to east coast USA, Canada, Africa and Asia besides HKG? If I am flying to India, Korea or Japan there is no way in hell I'm going to fly NZ to HKG and hub from there, unless I want to add hours to by trip, likewise flying to Denver or Vancouver.

Of course I could simply join another *A FF scheme, or use Oneworld airlines which by and large don't discriminate.