MilesBuzz! - Which Airlines offer Status w/o flying?

Hello All,
I've been able to get a bunch of goldpoints so I was wondering which airlines give out status without flying and what are the levels? I hear you usually get free upgrade coupons upon reaching the status levels? How many do you get? Thanks!

Canadaflyer -

I am not aware of any airline that gives Elite status without flying. Flying is their business and Elite status is a way to reward people who patronize that main business.

There are many people here (and I wonder what % of FF programs overall?) that collect many miles with out ever leaving Firma Terra. I would guess American has one of the best programs for collecting FF miles and never flying (all sorts of partner programs)

As for Elite upgrades, all programs vary. Most reward Elite flyers after flying at least 25,000 actual flight miles a year level with a "silver-level" status. It varies by airline - with United awarding 4-500 mile segment upgrades for every 10,000 actual miles flown, to Northwest with unlimited domestic upgrades (of course if every elite has unlimited - you can see the supply/demand issue there...)

Airlines sell FF miles to companies (MCI/ATT/Flowers.com etc) and make a lot of money doing this - so these companies can "give" miles as promo miles. These can be used in FF programs just like any other mile (for free tickets, free upgrades etc) but these are not status miles toward Elite. Only paid actual flight miles in the air *usually* count toward "Elite (Silver/Gold etc) status.

There are exceptions of course - but in most cases to sit "free up front" one has to ride a lot "in the back". http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif


MSP Flyer http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Wel, if you could come up with a way to dump miles into AAdvantage and accrue a lifetime total of 1mm or 2mm, you'll get lifetime Gold or Platinum respectively.

Hi,
Thanks for the info. I can put in 2mil points into AA but they don't fly out of Canada or to Asia much it seems. I go mostly to SFO and Hong Kong. Anyone know if you can use their status/miles on partner airlines? I heard united actually allows you to get status without flying...

NO ONE will let you get status without flying besides AA. If you can tranfer 2 million AA points, then you'll get lifetime Platinum. You can use AA points to fly CX out of Canada to HKG.

If you want status & upgrade coupons, get on the plane and fly!! That's what most of us do to get the goodies.

Btw, what do you mean by "a bunch" of goldpoints? How much do you have?

Hello,
Thanks again for the info! Can I use points to get flights then use those flights to get status? Too many points to know what to do hehe http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

You won't get any points at all while flying on award tickets. How did you get so many Goldpoints (I am just curious how many you got?)?

You can always fly Southwest where you're all cattle.

I hope he knows that Goldpoints does not transfer 1:1 to airlines.

Gold Points can't be transferred to AA, just NW, US and DL.

By the way, 2M airlines miles would be 20M Gold Points. Depending on how you earned them, you must have spent somewhere between 1-3 million dollars. If you're spending that kind of money, you're probably best off just picking a convenient airline and flying until you get status.

d

Goldpoints can be used at 4:1 at a bunch of airlines if you register with radisson. Valumag deals at $1000 gives you ~100,000k miles and is cheaper than cereal.

Canadaflyer, you never answered Empress's question, "Btw, what do you mean by "a bunch" of goldpoints? How much do you have?"

Qualify for and get an Amex Centurion card and you'll intermediate status on a couple of carriers, one of which I think is CO.

Yes, I am still wondering how many points he has. Also since he lives up in Canada and many of those products only ship to the US, how does he manages to do it.

.

[This message has been edited by canadaflyer (edited 01-27-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Always Flyin:
Qualify for and get an Amex Centurion card and you'll intermediate status on a couple of carriers, one of which I think is CO.</font>

Always Flyin is correct. Get the AMEX Centurion card and get mid-tier status on US, DL, CO and a few others all without ever steping foot on a plane...

Actually you can became SK EuroBonus Gold without flying. All you need to have is a bunch of hotel nights at Radisson SAS hotels where you earn basic points.

Kempis - is this still the case where you can get SK Eurobonus Gold (*A Gold) just for a bunch of stays at Radisson?

If i'm reading right, you need 45k for EB *G in some countries, and you get 0.5k per night at Radisson SAS hotels, so does that mean after 90 nights in a year you will earn EB *G?

Always Flyin is correct. Get the AMEX Centurion card and get mid-tier status on US, DL, CO and a few others all without ever steping foot on a plane...

This is true.

Kempis - is this still the case where you can get SK Eurobonus Gold (*A Gold) just for a bunch of stays at Radisson?

If i'm reading right, you need 45k for EB *G in some countries, and you get 0.5k per night at Radisson SAS hotels, so does that mean after 90 nights in a year you will earn EB *G?

Yes it´s true. But some hotels only award 300 or 400 SK points. Most seem to be 500 though. You also have to be aware that only RadissonSAS and RadissonEdwardian hotels give status points on SK. And now that SAS spun off a share of Rezidor (it´s hotel operator), things might change.

AA has another way to get status without flying. Pre-pay $5,000 worth of travel to use by Feb. 29, 2008, and get instant Gold; $10,000 worth, instant Platinum; and $20,000 worth, instant EXP. Not a good deal if you're concerned with earning status at the lowest cost, but if you're going to fly that much in a year anyhow and can afford to have that much money tied up, it's available.

The downside is that you can only pay for your own tickets (not even those of your travel companions, let alone those of random friends and colleages) with this account, it's only good on AA-numbered flights (includes code-shares, but not flights with partner flight numbers) and you lose anything you don't use (you can extend it three months for a fee, but then that's it).

More information in this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=655100) and on aa.com.