If there is being a way of earning status miles without actually flying, I'd also like to know. Booking a EWR-YYZ-SCL-EZE-MEX mistake fare notwithstanding .

I'm 95 miles from 40K myself, although I'm owed about 1100 miles from two UA segments which never posted. Having hit 35K, I can't even be bothered to chase after the missing miles (FT sacrilege!).

With my flying patterns, I'm not able to use SWU. I have one more 2008 flight which will put me over the 40K threshold in the end. My own take on it is that the later I leave it, the more likely it may be that I'll get 2009 certs, which hopefully can be used in the coming year.