Originally Posted by
NC_Girl
Thanks for the replies. Looks like since American has a really big presence in cental and S. America I will concentrate there for now. I will have 5000 or so on American when I get back from Nicaragua the end of February and will be getting the the AA credit card (I assume those go toards elite status?) So will have a good start. I will no doubt be putting in a few domestic trips anyway this year which I will do on American and I might try a couple of quick mileage runs to see if I can hack it out and if so that will get me close to the 50,000 mile mark in March. Then I guess I need to look out for other offers and see where else I can go to build points/miles.
And, If it isn't for me then nothing lost but some time right?
No, only miles from flying will go towards elite status. Again you should read the STICKY in AA forum to learn more about the program.
50K miles earned from flying get you to Platinum, the 2nd tier of AA elite. There is NO automatic upgrade for PLT. You use "sticker" to pay for the upgrade. Instead of explaining more here, I would again ask you to read the AA STICKY and learn more from AA's own website.
On the other hand, miles from all sources go to your account and can be used to redeem for award flights among other things, as well as included in Life Time earning which AA has an unpublished benefit is Life Time elite status (only Gold and PLT) can be earned from miles accumulated from all sources. 1 million miles earn you Life Time Gold, 2 millions Life Time Plat. EXP can only be earned by flying and has to be requalified each year.