<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by ozstamps:
I'll just add the standard word of caution here. 
Status Comps are generally ONE TIME things.
I can pretty easily get a Platinum comp from AA with my 1K card, but why? I am not going to fly AA so such a waste. Same with DL probably. Why?
One day I might REALLY need to get instant status with them (i.e. if UA vanished!) and THAT is the year to wait and ask nicely. 
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Well, I am actually taking a timeout from work right now for a few months and that's why this will be the time for me to fly a lot for leisure - once I get back to work, I don't think I will have that much time - or at least I will not make the decisions where I will fly solely based on where I
want to go. So, as crazy as it may sound (probably not to Flyertalkers, but to "normal" people
), I am already pondering whether I should do my second RTW in a few months on Oneworld or with the CO/KL/NW alliance when I haven't even gotten far in the first one yet. So, if I get instant status on CO, that might be an incentive to do the RTW on CO etc., if I get instant status on BA, it might be an incentive to do it there. I don't want the status just to "have it", I actually want to fly, I just want to get the bonus miles and the lounge access from the beginning...and since I have read that many people here got that kind of deal, I am thinking why not try it...nothing bad about that, I think...
Oh, and
if they only comp once in a lifetime, it doesn't matter to me either, because when I will really need to fly a particular airline a lot in the future, status will come after a little while anyway, and they will surely not turn away my business just because they have comped me a few years earlier and I might not have flown as much as they expected.
So, it's all good (I think)
.