Welcome to Flyertalk, hoyateach.

I'll look in upping my Marriott stays too.

I am also hoping my unofficial million miler status on US (you have to call to find this info) down the road may mean something on UA's better recognition of miles flown status, should the two airlines merge.

I was able to take advantage (no pun intended) of the USAIR/AA mutual awards swap a few years back which contributed greatly to help me rack up over 1mm miles in AA in about a year. I didn't realize this until toward the end of the swap program, but any US awards booked on AA metal contributed to the AA miles total. Three F rt to Narita and I was up 300,000 AA miles. I would think partner points/miles flown on AA metal should still result in AA miles appearing toward mm status.

As a mileage earning opportunity, on the rare occasions an airline bumps me on an award tix to another airline, I try to get AA. Mrs. Outoftown and I were able to get AA miles for US booked award travel when we were bumped from a US Z class ticket to Y class on AA. It happened twice to us last year, both times on international flights. With the 100% Platinum bonus I got, this was a substantial chunk of miles toward mm status at 0 cost.