iancanton,

I believe ANY points that enter your account from anywhere count toward elite qualification.

I too would like to know if you can be gifted more than 20k points in a year (i know the limit is 20k per transaction from one person).

p.s. Just phoned the RA desk, and they said their is no limit for the receiving member. But there is a limit for the sending member. Ie I can gift my sister a maximum of 20k points per year. She could then do the same for me, and it would not count toward us buying points for ourselves. And that 10 people could choose to but a gift (being the operative word) of 20k points each to me and that is fine. So you can't 'gift' someone points (that would be transferring and the costs involved in that), but you can 'buy a gift' of 20k points for them (or varying amounts of 1k points up to 20k).

Pretty nice workaround if you ask me, especially if you need to top up for a points break stay *grin*.