to be fair, regular DM is not too demanding if you’re flying all J or F. A round trip to Shanghai Tokyo Beijing or Singapore is 80 points. 12 of those combined in a year would be an easy year (and unlikely low). Thats almost 1000 points right there. All you need is basically a round trip in F or one or two in J long haul and you’re done. It’s not everyone’s line of work but I’d say overall thats a “not too grueling” business traveler schedule!

to get 3k or what the people above are talking about, is definitely dedication. I couldnt hit that without severely curtailing flying on other airlines, and/or at least focus entirely on one-world, which I currently don’t. And even then it’s a lot of flying no matter what airline you’re doing the equivalent of 3k status points on. Although not totally prohibitive, again, if entirely in J or F. Premium cabins are obviously crucial to getting those numbers unless you are truly a crazy person and lover of extreme pain.

I am not sure about DMP thresholds these days, except I’ve never been one. I used to think it was lawyer/banker profiles flying back and forth in full J to JFK or LHR once or twice a month. But a friend of mine who is DMP, certainly doesn’t do that, I reckon he doesn’t even touch the amounts some of the people above here do. But he spends a foolish (I’ve told him as much) amount on CX tickets. Every ticket is full J regionally ex HKG, and F a few times to London each year. He could save tends of thousands of USD by simply applying a few of the hacks learned on here.

Even if I’m off piste on the DMP stuff, I’m certain you can hit regular DM without much effort with the right business profile (meaning travel required) and premium cabin tickets.