I believe AA also doesn't charge fuel surcharges, or at least as higher surcharges, as other OW airlines on its redemptions which is another thing that makes it attractive...
An exception to this is AA awards on BA flights, where fuel surcharges are payable.
Across any program, it's important to note that:
- With Economy classes, not all class codes credit to all frequent flyer programs. For example, some Qantas discount Economy codes do not credit anything to AA's programme.
- Business or First is generally not constrained in the same way (i.e. they all are eligible for earn - except possibly for award classes - and usually earn at a consistent rate)
For earn and burn, I'd nominate AA first up, with BA (Avios) second. AA has no fuel surcharges except on BA redemptions. BA has good quality redemptions for at least Y (J and F quite a bit more) but of course will incur fuel surcharges.
For elite status, probably BA or QF are the best in
oneworld. AA is quite easy for lower levels (i.e. Ruby and Sapphire), not so for Emerald. CX only counts high Economy and above classes towards status, and has higher requirements at Emerald than AA does, but if you can make it, apparently it's a very rewarding programme.
Other things to consider is that you can only get credit cards in Australia which can transfer points (directly) to QF and CX (from what I can tell). Transfer of points to AA or BA (and possibly others) can be achieved through hotel programmes (e.g. SPG), but not sure of the economics. (Most people regard the Amex -> SPG -> AA transfer as reasonable).
Do note that with BA you can't be an Australian resident and enroll. You would need to find a way to have a non-Australian address (e.g. UK address).
With MH coming on board, they may be a possibility. Apparently some people have been getting some excellent redemptions with MH, even in Business and First (though it hasn't been smooth sailing a process). Of course, the recent 50% off redemptions offer is still fresh in everyone's mind - anyone's guess as to whether that will happen again. From a status point of view, Gold appears reasonable to get in Enrich, but Platinum is a consistent effort demonstrated over 3 years and needs J and F flying to achieve it. MH may change the terms of its Enrich programme in terms of status levels and earn and burn once
oneworld membership officially starts, but we'll see. You can also transfer some Australian credit card points to MH.
I don't have much knowledge of many of the other
oneworld programmes, i.e. JL Mileage Bank, LA LANPass, S7 Priority, RJ, AY Plus... though my gut tells me that they aren't as popular (at least for Australians) as the others.
All in all, have you also considered switching alliances (e.g. Star Alliance, even Virgin Velocity and partners)?