In case you haven't seen it, and especially now that US is part of *A, they have a deal on where you can pick up serious status miles simply for booking on-line. The details can be found at http://www.usairways.com/dividendmiles/6855.htm .

In short, 5 purchases before February 16, 2005 gets you 20,000 status miles. Fewer purchases gets you fewer status miles.