I am hoping to qualify for AY Gold by January, therefore I looked into how best maintain that status.

To requalify, you need 210k points in 24 months. Simple.


To qualify from scratch you need only need max 180k (60k for Silver + 120k for Gold) or even much less, if you go for silver by flying 36 segments.

In other terms, should I open another account and credit my flights in 2009/2010 to that one while neglecting the "Gold" account (but enjoying the privileges, of course)? This secondary account then could ensure Gold status for 2011-2012. The original account would drop to Silver by 2011, but then I can start the whole cycle all over again.

On the long term, 120k every other year would be enough. Or?