Hey Jonnye,

It's just the opposite. LY calls "basic points" the ones that you get from flying LY metal - and you can ONLY get them from flying LY metal, not from promotions (as you correctly stated) and not from other airline partners. Both of the later kind of points are always called "partner points" and never count for PL/GL status.

Remains to be seen what they'll do with the new AA codeshares. AA DOES give "elite qualifying miles" for its codeshares on other airlines' metal, as long as the ticket has the AA code. This is pretty much industry standard. You can pretty much count on LY screwing this up. Just watch. (I will be pleasantly surprised to be wrong. Actually, shocked - but happily shocked).