Originally Posted by sdsearch:18162067
Originally Posted by
bar001
I got on the AA wagon too late to earn million milers status and permanent gold status etc. I do not fly enough to achieve this with Butt in seat miles but, with AA i earn around 30,000 miles per month with bankdirect and other programs they have.
I would like to find out if there are still any AIRLINE programs that are still offering permanent statuses (that get perks such as free lounges, etc etc.) to miles that are earned through other programs they run, not just BIS miles.
You seem to be confused about status levels. Gold Status at AA (and equivalent lowest level at other airlines) doesn't give you any lounge status. And Platinum Status (which requires 2 million miles for lifetime at AA) gets you lounge status only on days you're traveling internationally (on an AA ticket).
All lifetime Gold status would have gotten you was access to preferred seating at booking (but will that go away after 2013? we're not sure), priority boarding, free checked bag, etc. Most of those things (except the preferred seats) are available with the "right" credit card at some other airlines, though not (yet?) at AA.
Anyway, as already explained by others, AA was the last airline to offer permanent status with non-BIS miles. So now that it stopped offering it, no one else does.
Some credit cards do give you lounge access through a program called Priority Pass, but usually they're cards with high annual fees. (You can also buy Priority Pass membership on its own, but you would want to verify that it has lounge access in the specific airport terminals you tend to be in. A lounge in, for example, JFK terminal 3 does you no good if you're flying through terminal 8!)
Actually the citi world elite card gives you lounge access (admirals club membership) with AA. Along with priority boarding, checked bags and 10k eqms fir each 40k charged. You can search for all the bennies but it is basically gold without the mileage bonus.