Tougher to do, but possible. More likely than not, your GF will have to join in to make this work as 2 Business/First MileSAAver fares will run 100K each. Assuming for the moment you're the usual age of a law student (20s), I'd opt for keeping this a surprise and doing it all yourself with coach tickets. When I was in my 20s, the excitement of any trip offset the discomfort I felt flying in coach. Furthermore, I like the romantic element of surprise this approach involves.
The only possible way I could see getting two business-class tickets without your GF's help: get the two personal cards immediately, meet the spend, then get a Citi/AA business card as set forth in the earlier post I cited, and meet that spend. The three cards together should get you 165K AA miles, including the 2 points per dollar earnings rate. Then get an Amex SPG (current signup bonus 25K but twice in the last two years 30K has been offered), which will allow conversion at a 1:1.25 ratio to AA, when done in blocks of 20K points. You'd get at least 25K more AA miles that way.
You'd still be short 10K miles. But, beginning immediately, you can earn miles in AAdvantage even without flying. Do some occasional dining and shopping in the AA Shopping Mall. The AAdvantage Dining program,
AAdvantage Dining, will help you earn as much as 5 miles per dollar spent at restaurants/bars (with occasional bonuses higher than that). I earned 25K miles in this program last year. You have to dine at restaurants in the program to earn points, the only downside. Good thing, there's a 1000-mile bonus for new members.
The Shopping Mall gives you a few more options. There was an incident last year involving a mistake offer made by Verizon that ticked a lot of people off; however, I've generally had good experiences with it. All sorts of ways to earn miles. You like to read the NY Times on Sunday? Subscribe:
https://www.aadvantageeshopping.com/...e=false&page=5. 1761 miles. Valentine's Day is coming up, and one of the retail categories with the highest earning rate is florists. Right now, most are offering 9-10 miles/dollar, but around major holidays, including Valentine's Day, the earnings rate generally jumps to 25 miles/$. There's another 1000-1500 miles for buying flowers that you'd probably buy anyway (and for some later purchases of flowers that you might not, but hey, you want to increase the chances she'll accept your proposal, right?).
The danger of this approach is that you're unlikely to accumulate enough miles before August 1. If you remain flexible on travel dates, however, you can still probably put together a trip. Just don't expect to travel at Christmas or New Year's.