Originally Posted by
tomh009
That's about 40K miles per year, give or take (you can work out more precise numbers based on your actual itineraries). I believe the only *A airline that will give you *Gold (which you need for lounge access) at that level is Air Canada, which starts its Elite level at 35K.
So if lounges are your top priority, take a look at AC's program.
Another option in that area is bmi's Diamond Club (not "Blue Diamond;" "Blue" is their term for entry-level membership with no status). It takes 57K status ("membership") miles to reach DC Gold, which is also *A Gold, but only 38K per year after that. What's more, you don't have to fly the whole 57K in one year. The first 3K get you Blue+. At that point you start another year in which 16K get you Silver. You then start another calendar, hopefully your final one, in which 38K gets you Gold. Some fares, obviously not the cheapest but some of them in economy class, count 1.5-3x toward these. More details in the bmi DC forum, of course.