Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
Search on "Platinum challenge" or "Gold challenge" (no quotation marks) and you will come up with some fast ways to get status on our AAirline.
As other posters have explained, pass a lot of expenses through your AAdvantage-related credit card, for example, and with your first total 1M miles earned from all sources (flying, bonus miles, credit card purccases, all the other ways you can get miles,) you are AAdvantage Gold for life, with 2M Platinum for life. For the moment, anyway.
So, no, you can't really buy status on AA, but you can earn it quickly with a challenge, and you can keep it until the airline or you die (unless they change the rules, of course,) if you earn enough miles (buy enough stuff or trade enough money get the status.)
Cheers,