Earning AA miles while flying Qantas - can this be right?
 

If I haven't misread the AA website, I only get 50% of Qantas miles flown credited to my account.

BUT, if I want the miles credited to my Continental account instead, I get 100% of the miles, even though CO isn't a oneworld partner.

Can this be right, or am I missing something?

Thanks!

The CO miles earned from a Qantas flight are not EQM. In addition, there is no elite bonus.

In addition, only certain flights are eligible (from the CO website):

Travel Area for Mileage Accrual: Qantas-operated flights between North American gateway cities and Australia, New Zealand and Nadi, Fiji, and on connecting flights within or between Australia and New Zealand (Consolidator fares, unpublished or non-revenue tickets excluded. Only residents of North America can earn OnePass miles.)

AA earning on QF flights depends on the fare class paid. For Y, B, H and K fares (QF's flexible fare classes) you earn 100% AA miles. In fact, on Y and B fares you also earn 150% EQP. Its only the more discounted fares that earn 50% AA miles.

The CO contract with QF is older than the Oneworld/AA one and has far better terms (for CO). Redeeming awards on QF is also cheaper with CO miles; such are the vagaries of FF plans and partnerships as they ebb and flow. At some point the CO agreement will end and there will be no more QF tie-in. AS is also better than AA for QF, despite not being in Oneworld.

Fair enough explanation. I'm travelling on a package deal (S-class) so I should be thankful to get miles at all, but I have a lot of CO miles right now and was hoping to beef up AA and at least get partial EQM. Maybe next trip. Sacrificing 10K miles due to the half-credit just to get half-credit EQM doesn't seem worth it to me. Thanks for your help though. I had been hoping I was misreading something somewhere . . .