Originally Posted by
tom911
If you're looking for lifetime status, AA offers lifetime Gold at 1MM and lifetime Platinum at 2MM. The miles can come from any source (flying, credit card, promotions). UA also offers lifetime Premier Executive status at 1MM, but in their case it's actual UA flight miles, so much harder to attain than AA.
The nice thing about AA, at least for people who are not rabid fliers, is that you can get lifetime Gold on AA and there is no similar lifetime plateau on UA. As to it being easier on American to reach lifetime Platinum, it probably is for most people, but if you get almost all your miles from flying and seldom qualify for 100% bonuses because you don't fly that frequently, it's probably easier to qualify on UA.