Hi,

I've booked a RTW ticket with BA/QF, and am looking into which frequent flyer program to join. I'm having a bit of trouble trying to work out all the different rules, though, and was hoping that a resident expert might be able to save me several hours of pain trying to get my head around everything.

There are two of us travelling, so if both our points can go under the same account then that would make it easier to spend them. We live in the UK, so would probably spend our points on flights from the UK, though I can't tell how much difference that makes. I don't think we've flown with any oneworld airlines before, so would probably look to cash in without earning many more points. I was told that everything is booking class K (apart from the Valuair flight which is Q).

The route we're travelling is:
Route Flight number (operated by)
LHR-MIA-LIM BA (BA/AA)
SCL-AKL QF (LA)
CHC-MEL QF (Jetstar)
CNS-SYD QF (QF)
SYD-DPS QF (Jetstar) - stops at MEL but I don't know what that would imply
JKT-SIN Valuair
BKK-LHR QF (QF)

which I work out at roughly:
BA: 6600 miles
QF: 13100 miles
QF (Jetstar): 4350-4650 miles
Valuair: 500 miles

We'll also need to get a couple of flights within South America, which might end up being with LA but might not.

As far as I understand things, QF seems the most sensible option (AA is out because we're flying LHR-MIA with BA, and QF are more generous than BA for discounted economy flights). Would that be a sensible choice for a UK couple, or would we be better off with BA, or another oneworld program (IB?)? Would we get points for the Jetstar-operated flights since we've got QF flight numbers?

Any advice would be very welcome. Thank you!

Since you will take few JetStar flights. Qantas is the best choice in your case.

I would not be using the lack on earning on LHR-MIA as a sole basis for ignoring AA given that BA flights will only earn 25% mileage to QF anyway, so about 1100 miles of credit

Booking Class K will earn 100% mileage to AA for the QF flights

Dave