Hi - my husband and I have been AA Gold for a number of years mostly due to my work-related travel and his flexibility to travel with me. I am in a new position where I rarely travel for business purposes anymore. We live in Dallas. Last year, we had to do a last-minute R/T trip in December to insure we qualified for 2005.

This year, we are not traveling much at all and while I like the early boarding & ability to get better seats in Coach, we more often do not get upgraded than do because of Platinum flyers on the routes we do usually travel unless off hours or seasons.

I decided to just buy First Class tickets on AA whenever we do travel & for a few trips earlier this year, it wasn't too painful. I figured we are probably not going to make Gold next year so we may as well get the mileage bonus & not worry about not getting upgraded.

We mostly travel to New York (LGA or EWR), Florida (PBI or FLL) or Seattle (SEA) where our families are & on occasion to Tampa, Chicago, Phoenix, Las Vegas & LA to visit friends or vacation. We do not do a lot of travel outside US except for Caribbean cruises.

I am starting to price some first class tickets on AA and fares seem to be going up.

I am new to this site and as I understand it, elite status on AA is only earned through actual miles not points. We have only flown 2 trips this year so YTD have only earned 4,460 miles each. No way will we do 25,000 this year.

I am wondering if we are better off to just start flying whatever airline has the least expensive non-stop First Class fares from DFW to wherever we are going & if AA, great & if not, fly another carrier.

If I am missing some way to keep our Gold status on AA other than actual flight miles, please let me know.

Also, can you direct me to best site or agent to get best fares to buy first class tickets.

Thanks.