Originally Posted by
RobertS975
But there was a time when all miles, flown miles, partners like car rentals or credit card, counted towards your lifetime total. So some of those 4MM folks were helped along with what are now bonus miles, not MQMs.
I'd bet most 4MM+ flyers received help from the pre-skymiles days. For a while old miles were even segregated as a separate currency with much better redemption value. Eventually old miles rolled into skymiles. I'd be in the 4MM+ club under the old rules, but only have 1.8MM MQM or so since all the time I've served on DL was in the post-everything-counts regime.