<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Actually, AA doesn't give status miles based on (paid) CoS (I've learned this painfully).</font>
They do now!
(Actually, they always did. There were three streams you could take to status -- segments (gold and platinum only), points, or miles. The miles route just gave you 1 mile for 1 mile flown, but points came in 50%, 100%, 125% and 150% forms, depending on fare.)