Originally Posted by
tommyleo
Due to how I interpreted the chart (and I know I'm not alone), the 40th hit is what made the terms especially misleading. After all, why would US only give another 10,000 regular miles (of which, it now turns out, only 3,000 are PQM) for getting to 40 hits after giving another 20,000 regular miles for getting to 32 and 36 hits? It seemed logical that the only "carrot" to get to 40 hits was to earn another 10,000 PQM because the incremental spend needed for four extra hits beyond 36 hits would very likely be too high compared to the value of those 10,00 extra regular miles.
The Chart is for normal people to earn US miles by every day activities that they do regardless of GS or not.
for normal people, there is no additional cost for earning the last 4 hits on GS as it is part of their every day life. It is only in FT and other travel blogs that we *game* the system by earning hits with as little spent as possible.