Originally Posted by Ferdinand Magellan

I thought that it might be helpful to list the ways to achieve airline elite status without flying. Here are the ones I know:

(1) 1M AA miles, from any source, gives you lifetime Gold status. 2M AA miles gives you lifetime Platinum status.

(2) DL (Amex) and US (Visa) offer credit cards with status mile bonuses for large annual purchases. DL Amex also offers 5K MQMs on signup. I have read that US allows multiple credit cards, so three 10K status mile bonuses (for $75K in purchases) would give you Silver status. US's Signature Visa card also offers many of the benefits of Silver status.

(3) Amex's Centurion Card offers Gold status on CO, DL and US. $125K in Amex Platinum purchases in one year (and other things) to qualify; $2500 annual fee.

(4) Some airline business programs, like CO's Reward One program, offer Silver status as a reward for certain numbers of "points."

(5) DL threshold awards allow one member meeting the status mile threshold to confer elite status upon another member -- 75K for one Silver, 125K for one Gold. For UA, 125K for one Premier. For NW, 1200 Platinum Points (Y travel & above) for one Silver, 2400 for one Gold. For Air Canada, 200K for one Elite (mid tier) and 300K for one Super Elite (top tier).

(6) Matching -- see the status match master thread.

(7) Promos -- from time to time, some airlines offer trial status. CO and America West did last year, for instance.

(8) Partners -- As pointed out below, AAdvantage Cruises offer up to 10,000 AA status miles (3 long cruises = AA Gold), Amtrak Metroliner and Acela BOS-NY or NY-DC gives up to 750 CO status miles RT, buying a Jaguar gives you BA Silver, DL AirElite Business Jet gives you 1 DL status mile for each $ spent, and SAS Radisson hotels offer up to 500 SAS status points per night.

(9) Some corporate travel offices reportedly can confer elite status on a limited number of flyers.

Any others?