Regarding AA million-miler: 1MM is Lifetime Gold, 2MM is Lifetime Plat. AFAIK, there is no Lifetime Ex-Plat for reaching a higher number. As others have pointed out, AA's program is MUCH different from the others in that they count bonus and partner miles. I do maybe 1 butt-in-seat mile for every 5 I earn total. I would never in twenty years reach 1MM flight miles, but I will get to AA 1MM rather quickly.

Regarding squeezing 2 years of status out of 1 set of mileage runs (or one set of frequent-flying), your best bet is probably the AA Platinum Challenge, done in July (I think) or later in the year. Say you decide to go for AA Plat status by flying discount coach: you could fly 20,000 Q-miles (equalling 10,000 Q-points) in July/August, thereby earning Plat status through the February ~18 months later. Assuming you didn't requalify, AA would bump you down to Gold for another 12 months. Then you'd cycle out of the status.

In other words, roughly two normal R/T's from North America to either Europe or Asia could get you about 30 months of elite treatment if done within the parameters of the AA Plat Challenge. If you browse the AA board (search on "challenge") or the Mileage Run board, you might find threads about the cheapest way to accomplish this or about 20,000-mile single trips.

If you are rarin' to go right now, you could probably find CHEAP int'l tickets and still get yourself 2+ solid years of elite status. Again, read about it from the AA experts here before going out and doing it...