The concept of status running from March 1 to Feb. 28/29 is pretty much a holdover from when airlines needed time to figure out who had flown how much. With computers doing the work it's no longer necessary, but some still do it anyway.

A side benefit of this method is that, if you drop in status, the drop comes two months later than it would on a calendar year basis.

I believe there are some non-U.S. airlines that grant status for two years at a time - there was a thread on that recently that you could probably find with a search. There are surely other variations as well. (I seem to remember some airline, perhaps no longer in business, where the status year began when you qualified and lasted for 12 months from whenever that was, but that may be the product of an overactive imagination.)

(Edited to correct error pointed out below.)

[This message has been edited by Efrem (edited Jan 02, 2004).]