Thank you very much for the information gleff. I just assumed we needed status to go over 50,000 anually on any credit card. Glad to know that we can earn as fast as we can spend with BofA/AS regardless of status.

We have five BofA, AS Platinum cards and would very much like to run up lots and lots of mileage on them over the next 5 years, in hopes that AS will maintain a strong and diverse partner base to eneable us to enjoy lots of first class international trael during our retirement years. Losing the miles earned by spending was my biggest concern.

We have more than enough miles to upgrade our necessary AS flights, SEA/LAS and SEA/SAN flights, and any occasional flights to Mexico that we might take, for the rest of our lives. I discovered this summer that I can fly and upgrade SEA/ANC far more easily and cost-effectively on UA than on AS. Anchorage was another big concern for me.

We currently have several million UA miles and that makes us a bit nervous given their Chapter 11 status. We aren't going to try to liquidate those miles at this time, but are keeping our fingers crossed for UA. We are also trying to diversify and rack up as many credit card spending miles as possible on other airlines, hoping to attain lifetime staus on AA before we ever fly them.

We have UA, NWA, and AA cards, as well as SPG and HH AMEX cards in addition to our AS cards and are planning to maintain top status on UA, SPG and HH for the next five years. When we retire, the plan is to use miles for first class tickets, and points and charm for upgrades at hotels.

The whole system may fall apart and, if that happens, it happens, but, to date, we sure as heck have enjoyed our FF, top status experiences.