Perhaps the most valuable thing I learned some time back (circa 2003) on FlyerTalk was that all AA miles from all sources counted (back then) toward AA lifetime elite status. So I set out trying to earn AA miles any way I could above all else, and half a year before all that ended (in late 2011), I totaled 2 million lifetime AA miles earned in about 8 years and earned lifetime AA Plat status (second level up) as a result..A good fraction of the actual miles I earned from flying were from double and triple RDM miles bonuses on flights (during the economic downturn) that I learned about on FlyerTalk. I pretty much never fly for work, so this is not something I could have ever achieved otherwise.