My mother just turned 70 and has been Platinum on AA for the past eight years; she was Gold for the previous seven years. She has almost 2,000,000 miles on AA and almost all were earned by flying and bonuses. She has never flown for business.

She did her first mileage run back in 1988 by flying to Austin and back from DFW on a Saturday so that she could qualify for AAs triple mile promotion.