As someone who started post-2011, I agree. The only way I'd achieve the invite-statuses is from MM status. I've flown 400k BIS miles across all airlines this year, and have only bought 2 non-economy tickets (with cash) this year. 1 was a domestic lie flat (on AA), and the other was a transborder lie flat (on Air Canada). AA is obviously never going to give me CK since I'm not high margin (if I'm even profitable at all), so it's really a kick that they can't differentiate flown from non-flown miles. My goal is to focus on AA for 2MM (for MCE at booking + intl lounge), and then focus on UA/*A.