Since we live in Australia, the logical thing would be to use QF to accrue and redeem miles. But I was having a look at AA and their program is more generous--unless I am missing something. We take one trip per year in economy. Usually we go Star Alliance and accrue to UA's program which has nice awards to the South Pacific. We are unlikely to ever become elite and upgrades aren't really an issue.

Next year, we are doing the following itinerary offered by TN which obviously fits the OW partnership:

BNE-QF-SYD-TN-PPT-LA-IPC-LA-SCL-LA-GRU/-GIG-LA-SCL-LA-SYD-QF-BNE

We will also have a side trip SCL-LIM-Puerto Maldonado-CUZ-LIM-SCL all on Lan Peru.

This should net us just a tad over 20,000 miles. If we use QF, we can't get much for that. If we use AA, according to the award charts, we should get a domestic QF award anywhere QF flies (unlike QF awards which are mileage based) which we would use to visit PER or possibly Darwin/Northern Territory.

It just seems really silly we have to use a non-Australian program to get a decent award flight. Am I missing something here? Is there some other reason I don't know about why I should use QF instead of AA such as bonus miles? We don't normally use OW airlines as most of our trips are to the Middle East or Asia and we fly EK and SQ or TG a lot.

Go to AA.com and have a look at the earning rules on various carriers. Some QF fares earn 50% mileage; QF-numbered flights on non-OW metal (such as TN) won't earn anything; the same goes for Lan internal Chile flights in certain classes. You'll need to review your fare basis before passing judgement on how useful AA will be.

OK, just double checked. The two QF segments would be a minimun 500 miles no matter what the class. So would be the Lan Peru Lima-Puerto Maldonado-Cuzco-Lima. So it looks like we end up with 21,040 miles all up. Even if QF is stingy and only gives us half, we would still be above the 20,000 for a domestic QF trip. (crosses fingers) Don't know if we get an enrollement bonus or any other goodies. I guess we could always try Lan's FF program too.

QF will give you zilch for signing up and will charge you Au $60. AA is free. Also on QF rewards you pay fuel surcharge's and other $$. No fuel surcharge�s on AA rewards (even when on a QF aircraft). On your QF 20,000 mile reward can easily to be paying $40 to $80 surcharge (which can be half the normal web fare).

It gets worse, QF would charge me 36,000 miles to do that trip. Plus the surcharges! AA is looking better all the time! You can even transfer the miles to hotel programs if you can't use them on flights.

I'm starting to wonder why anyone even bothers with QF's program!

I just checked out Lanpass, its even worse than QF! The above gets us 28,000 km, you need 40,000 km for the smallest OW award!

People us QF because if you fly regularly with them and have status with them there are advantage. But for the less frequent flyer AA is generally hard to beat. they temd to be generous with miles and their awardsa re cheap. Check out the Plat Challenge - with the itin you quote you may well be able to get Palt status and the lounge access that goes with it.

Unless having QF Platinum status I find it hard to see what real advantage the QF scheme has these days for those that earn miles by flying ( those that get nearly all their miles from spending on credit cards , I don't care about ).

20k points does allow a return trip to anywhere in Australia or New Zealand, so not just a domestic trip

Dave

Dave, you have hit the nail on the head! Unfortunately there is a huge number of people out there that make most their miles out of credit card spending. Whilst there are still a large number of cards out there that offer 1.5 points per Aussie dollar, you can see that the QF programme even with all the thievery last year is very competative. In the UK for example, the best that I can get is a 1.5 miles per pound and the US 1 mile per US dollar.

Unfortunately the QF programme is becoming more and more aimed at frequent shoppers. Sad but true.

Which is why I am now booking my flights to AA and will retail CC earn in QF for use as QF upgrades. AA is way better earning and burning rate for points/miles earned by flying (especially with my flying patterns). I have QF Lifetime Gold status so that gets me part way up the upgrade waitlist to burn my QF points on QF flights.

Note that the last time I redeemed points for QF domestic award flight, it cost me 25,000 points and $72 Fuel Fine for one-way BNE-ADL-PER (and similar for the return). Compare with 20,000 AA points and not Fuel Fine and I am way ahead using AA.

OK, so now that I know which OW program to join, I have to just sit back and wait for a good sign-up bonus to come along!

Enjoy flying LAN, I had a coupe of segments with them and was very happy with service in economy, even domestic flights offered meal service and free beverages.
PPT-IPC-SCL is done on their B763, try to get a left hand seat when flying out of IPC to see more of the island.
I also did GRU/GIG and took the bus, about $R60 for the trip which is around 6h, buses are very comfortable.
Do consider that CUZ is at 3300m, and if you are planning to do some trekking, allow a couple of days to get used to the thin air. SCL-SYD is done on their A343 with personal IFE.

6 hours on a bus?! Why not just take a quick flight instead? It's going to be way faster, even more so if you fly CGH-SDU instead of GRU-GIG. Cheapest fares are perhaps $10 or $20 more than the bus. It's probably a lot safer to fly as well.

Hm... For R$90 (US$40) you can go ultra comfortable, that is your seat reclines fully, you get champagne, beer, wine, 3 course dinner and whiskey. Buses in Brazil/Chile/Argentina are generally very comfortable, even the cheapest bus I was on was more comfortable than any bus I've been on in Europe.
I did arrive in Rio at sunrise, maybe that would be the only dodgy part about taking the bus, but there are buses throughout the day and taxis are readily available outside the bus-terminal.
Is a question of $$ and comfort ofcourse.

I'll second that. Despite the long ride I have done Buenos Aires<->Santiago by bus several times, mostly for the same reasons you mention, but also to enjoy a different perspective when crossing the Andes.

We are actually doing a bit more travelling than that. We will arrive in GRU, fly to FOZ as soon as possible. Then we bus to Campo Grande to see the Pantanal. Then another bus to Rio. Its both to save money and to see more of Brazil at ground level.