Note that on AFKL metal award tickets, one can still buy SAF. For a TATL round-trip this would, at the extreme, be something like $1600 extra for 150 XP (and miles, depending on status). With the 60 XP each year on offer for putting $15k in spend on the card (which spend would earn at least 27,500 miles), this means Gold, with an occasional burst to Platinum, is quite attainable for not much investment ($1600 and something like 30k miles (transferred or foregone by not using a 2x card)).