I'm really trying to jump into the MR game to reach status on an airline.

I looked into AA not long ago and I see they have competitive fares, many routes and I've had overall good customer service so far. Above all, from YUL they have some of the lowest YQ charges around. That is why I chose to switch some points from another airline to AA (nov promo).

I saw there are plenty of good runs posted with AA / oneworld. Thing is the nearest one would be BOS or ORD. JFK sometimes has "ok" runs. That is at least 5-6 hours away by car. I tried to find combos where I could find cheap fares to above airports via PBG or BTV (even from YUL which is extremely rare), but no luck.

So now I'm a bit stuck as to how to reach gold, plat or exp. Without MRs (along with DEQM or even TEQM), reaching status seems to e but a dream...

Unless someone out there has pointers for me!