Long haul advice needed

Hi, I plan to travel to Ireland to visit family in June this year. Got a good deal through KLM. They use Etihad for long haul. Details are below but my question is this. How do I maximise these flight in term fo frequent flyer benefits? Is there anyway I can collection points through virgin FF and/or Qantas FF or should I join up with KLM/Etihad or another program? Any advice around stop over and best lounges to pay or have access to? Also, my wife and kid are also travelling with me but one week later.

Updated:
Travel with Virgin Australia and our world-class airline partners and be rewarded with more than an outstanding journey. As a Velocity member, you can earn Points to over 600 destinations worldwide.
Discover how many Points you can earn when you travel with:

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• Etihad Airways    
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• airberlin
• Alitalia    
• Hawaiian Airlines    
• South African Airways    
• Virgin Atlantic
• Virgin America

I'm not going to copy the link in here, because then it'll go to moderators, but google "earning velocity miles on Etihad" and it's your first result.

Originally Posted by MRYJDrake :

That was my thinking, however as its throuhg KLM I was wondering if it would possible.

Since these are KL coded flights, seems to me your only option is the flying blue programme. Which is not surprising given that its a great fare. Flying blue is not a great programme if you're based in Australia.

So it looks like as they are KL code (wife are FR) they will need to go through flying blue. What about the airport lounges, any advice on the best lounge deals in AMS, AUH?

If you can't get in with status you can pay at AMS to get into the Aspire Lounge- just make sure you pick the right terminal.