aktchi

Since you asked, here is what I think. Yes, there is a major difference between Gold and Plat, and Plat is better. No, I wouldn't waste my SPG points chasing LT Plat. It obviously makes no sense if you would qualify annually. Even otherwise, it is better to pay the $25 bag fee or $50 for lounge access.

Indeed. If you do want to so that, transfer 60K SPG points per day. That way you’d get the full bonus.

Of course, you are aware that nobody could have gotten a single FF mile without flying unless the airlines wanted it this way.

Cous

I'm itching to give it a final push, too!

570k Current LT total from Citi AA cc spending & random flying AA 10+ yrs
150k bonus I should meet from the 2 75k credit cards in another month
75k points from SPG transfer yesterday
40k I can reasonably manage $20k/month business spending
845k Anticipated total

My oldest personal credit card is the Citi Plat MC, and the annual fee is due this month. I wonder if they will honor my request for an upgrade to the $450 card that allows points thru 2012? With $20k/mo (avg) spending, that should get me to 965k next year Dec. That of course, doesn't include the 4-7 flights I can squeeze in, too. I know it's not 1MM, but at least it is more attainable after that.

And if I DON'T get approved for the $450/yr cc, I will still be happy with the 845k I managed to get.

My only concern is downgrading the card afterwards (assuming they allow me to upgrade). I certainly don't want to cancel the card, as it IS my oldest.

DaveOKC

Someone mentioned that the Fidelity promo was only good if you never had a Fidelity account. I just signed up yesterday for one and I MAY have had one years ago (more than 12 as that is how far back my records go) and it would have been at another address.

Anyone think this might be a problem?

Thanks

kmandrew

Several of us have been successful upgrading the older Citi MC, you should also receive a 25k Bonus for doing it, I plan to go back to $85 card Oct 2012 and told the Citi agent as much she said it would be no problem, I would think you would be very important to them charging that many $; I only give Citi 5k/mo.

sent

It's connected with your SSN. I applied under a different name than the one my IRA accounts are in and didn't get anything saying I was ineligible. Later they called me to say I wasn't eligible because I had previous accounts. They blamed the approval email on the computer getting confused because I had two different last names.

DaveOKC

Thanks for the reply - another 2 questions:

How long did it take before your were notified? Also, how long was it between the time you had a previous account.

Mad4Miles

Currently at 6.8M.. looks like I'll cross 7M a year latter. No big deal, however the 8M crossing will be significantly delayed.

toast24

Unfortunately I only got into this game a little while ago - I've done really well, making PLT and my first 100k miles already, but no way am I going to make 1 million miles by December. It's simply not economically feasible.

So - BIS it is.

econometrics

I'm currently at about 380k LTM, so there's no immediate hope for me. However, I am going to get as close as I can before December 1! Just got an offer for a 50k CitiBiz bonus in the mail the other day (I already have a CitiBiz) and got approved for a different business, ha!

I'm going to use that card and spend $1k on 40k + 10k bonus miles to cover half of the $2k spend before the bonus kicks in. Gets me 100k closer at least! I should be 500k LTM before December 1, I can live with that.

oldpenny16

Don't forget the obvious shopping opportunities! I'm loading up on stuff from Drugstore.com and ValueMags. VM is 23 AA miles per $.

Am buying a year's supply of dog supplies, Greenies, anti-flea meds and toilet paper etc. on Drugstore.

sent

LOL, my husband just asked me to pick up some toothpaste on the way home. I told him there's no hurry, he'll get his toothpaste when I order it from Drugstore.

For my birthday this year, I wanted to have take out from PF Changs (they're on the eShopping site) and fly somewhere for a short trip. But my birthday is in mid-December. On my walk home this morning, I was thinking that I need to move my birthday up by a month.

sent

I think it was within a week or two. I still have IRAs with them. I thought for some reason that opening a non-IRA account would count. The person who called me did say I could do the DL miles promotion which I did and those miles have posted.

rmc1

I can't believe I forgot the Mileage Multiplier option. I have 5 transcons before Dec so I have that option. Does anyone know what the prices are? I'd love to figure it out in advance so I can decide what strategy to take. My flights are JFK-SFO and JFK-LAX so about 2500 miles each way.

y2chen

It figures out to be about 3.2-3.3cpm based on their example online, so not that great of a deal, but maybe if you've already maxed out what you can buy.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/pr...Multiplier.jsp

aktchi

Don't feel bad, there is less to LT status than meets the eye, especially Gold. My advice would to focus on qualifying year to year, using challenges strategically as and when possible. Someday you'd be LT Gold and wonder what the big deal was. Then one day you'd be LT Platinum and that would feel slightly better.