I have answered every PM ever received, even the one that in final analysis seemed to be asking me to gift him enough miles to upgrade on NW from Athens to the U.S.

I agree that if you need 3k miles to make the next elite level, buy a ticket and fly for it to the cheapest place that is more than 1500 miles OW. Easy to do even in the middle of the country on any airline.

It does somewhat annoy me if someone presents alternatives and later rejects a seemingly better alternative because it is too much trouble to do the routing. Mileage runs are not brain surgery, if one reads all the info in this forum there is no reason not to be successful.