With a bit of free time on my hands and while searching the AA & SPG boards about how to earn the maximum amount of miles being based in the UK, an idea came to me. I am going to outline the situation to you all, and gauge your thoughts on whether this is worth doing or not.

The Goal: To achieve 1m miles in the AA program & use the miles for my honeymoon travel next year.

The Current Status: I have 817k AA program miles, of which I have redeemed all but 2k. Another 20k are in the pipeline as I have just received my Citibank Business Credit Card, so in theory I have 837k AA miles. I also have 16.5k SPG points (and an SPG AmEx card), which I regularly convert to AA miles when they hit the 20k mark.

The Process: Purchase 40k miles this calendar year and next, and get my wife to “gift” me 30k miles this calendar year and next, which is the maximum limit. This would total 140k miles at a cost of approximately $3,990. This takes my mileage balance to 977k (817k + 20k + 140k). As the purchase would be on my SPG AmEX, it would earn me an additional 3,990 SPG points, which when combined with my existing points nets me an additional 25k miles, taking me to 1,002,000 miles!

The Rewards: 183k miles to spend, 4 eVIPs (I am resident in the UK and have been since 1998; my mailing address is also here), Lifetime Gold (and its 25% bonus & business class check-in on all OW airlines, of which I fly BA the most), luggage tags with “1 million miler” on them (okay, I will admit, this is the only reason I want to do this – just kidding!), and being part of ‘the club’.

The Use of Miles/eVIPs: In calculating whether this will be worth my while, I expect to use the 185k miles for travel on BA or CX J to either Africa, the Middle East, or Australasia. I also intend to trade the 4 eVIPS on Coupon Connection for a 120k award (eg LHR-DPS on BA/CX J) or two 60k awards (eg LHR-DXB on BA J) - both of which I have done before. The total value of these J tickets really depends on use, but to give you a guide, a BA J ticket from LHR-NBO is at least $4,000 (75k miles) or LHR-DXB is at least $3,000 (60k miles); LHR-DPS is at least $12,000 on BA/CX J (120k miles). Given that we are very flexible with dates of travel, I do not think I would have a problem securing premium seats for the places I would like to go.

So now I turn to you, the experts, on whether this makes sense and is worth it, or am I just crazy? Please be candid, harsh, and honest – your thoughts would be much appreciated.

Many Thanks,
AAmerican_in_London