Originally Posted by
honmani2
There's a difference in how you earn SWUs and how you can get them. You earn them as others have said. And once you do, it is, indeed, hard to go back. But it means flying 100K a year.
You don't really need to fly 100K miles a year to get 1K status. EQMs can also be earned in other ways, such as with the Mileage Plus Visa card, the Elite Choice program, and/or a double EQM promo. Some "1K lites" use all three of these.
You can get them in violation of the rules by buying them from someone, say, on e-bay or by going to coupon connection and getting it "gifted" by someone.
But if a SWU is gifted (as opposed to "gifted"
) it is NOT in violation of the rules.