Yowza - this sounds promising! Is there a level where you get lifetime exec platinum? And if I had lifetime gold, do I only need to earn the difference between gold and platinum to get platinum, or do I need to earn the whole lot? I mean, gold is 25k miles, platinum is 50k miles. If I get lifetime gold, an I also get 25k qualifying miles, do I get platinum or do I need to earn 50k even though I am already gold?

If I concentrated on pushing most of our purchasing through awards CC's, I could probably get $500k a year, and wouldn't be too long to get platinum.

I used to work at a place years ago that required employees taking company-paid biz trips to give the miles to the company. Are miles transferred from others considered qualifying miles? Or does it include cases where I buy the ticket but it's in another persons name? I.e. company pays for Bob and Sarah to go to a show in Seattle but the points are retained by the company because during the booking it asked which FF account to use and I put my account in since I'm purchasing the tix? Or do the miles only go to the actual traveler as qualifying miles?

Thanks for the info - sorry if I seem green, but I *really* appreciate the benefits of these programs and it seems an easy way to make life easier without doing much different than we do right now.