A bit off topic maybe, but I got a nice card from UA while flying last month, congratulating me on a 25 year anniversary with MileagePlus. It took me off-guard because I certainly haven't been counting.
I am wondering if lifetime status is a lot easier to achieve now than it was at inception. 25 years ago, for example, the US and CO flights definitely never counted to PQM on UA. But since mergers, I'm not sure how those counted. I believe that all of my historic CO miles got added. In ~2001, my first US account was closed with all points added to my UA account. I suppose that my current, reincarnated US account absorbed whatever my HP account had but nothing that my PSA flights ever accumulated. It's too bad that my UA flights from the 1960's and 1970's don't count to my UA lifetime accumulation.