Wexflyer

I have a question about the million mile programme: does "lifetime" status do anything with regard to the requirements to keep miles or AAdvantage membership active?

JY1024

Unfortunately, no. You'll have Platinum elite status for life, but your miles in your AAdvantage account will still be held to the same 18-month expiration rule as any other member.

sdsearch

Are you sure that's even clear? Doesn't AA reserve the right to cancel your account (not just your miles), even if you have lifetime status, if they hear nothing from you for a number of years?

I would think lifetime status is for the lifetime of AAdvantage or the lifetime of your AAdvantage account, whichever one ends first.

sdsearch

Did you really get to lifetime status only from flying?

(At AA, most people get there from at least a combination of flying and one or more types of partner activities.)

Meantime, all partner activities, all earning and redeeming, counts as "activity" to keep your miles alive.

So redeem for an award? Expiration extended.

Stay at a hotel and earn AA miles (no matter how few)? Expiration extended.

Use a credit card. (Doesn't even need to have an annual fee. You could use a hotel card with no annual fee, and occasionally transfer the hotel points to AA.) Expiration extended.

Shop online, and use the AA shopping portal. Expiration extended.

Dine (that includes just a coffee at many places) at an AAdvantage Dining restaurant. Expiration extended.

So especially if you're based in the US (it shows you as being in the San Diego area, although your spelling of "programme" makes me wonder whether that's temporary or not), the only thing you have to do is get in the habit of doing one or more things in a way that earns AA miles, and you never have to worry about expiration again.

Or, set up a calendar reminder system, and just do one expiration-avoiding activity once or twice a year (just to be sure), and you never have to worry about expiration again.

And what's the point of having lifetime status if you're never going to fly (either paid or award) on AA or any of its mileage partners again?

rjw242

According to mikeinmiami's letter, it's "for the life of the AAdvantage Platinum program" (though I think you're right, they can in principle close your account for any reason; it's just unlikely for them to do so arbitrarily). Hopefully that doesn't mean they can rename the levels Lead, Tin, and Executive Brass and wipe out everyone's lifetime status

Wexflyer

Did I say any such thing? Lives and travel habits change, thats all. In particular, I have in mind what Delta did. They had an announced mileage expiry deadline. I took note of it, and before the deadline was up I went to use my miles (a considerable number), only to find my miles gone - expired. Delta had changed the expiry deadline downwards in the meanwhile.
It would be nice if the "lifetime" status on AA meant that I did not have to worry about such abusive behaviour.

ekartash

has anyone had success changing their address to international prior to hitting the 1 million mark? i should be crossing over some time next week, and would prefer to get the swu's over the stickers. is it wishful thinking?

uxb

I have a home in London, and am also approaching the 1MM mark. I could legitimately change my address, but since I do much of my travel between JFK and LAX/SFO, it may raise a lot of suspicion (according to what I have read on FT). Best to tread carefully since AA is like the gestapo when it comes to system cheats.

To quote Levar Burton: "You don't have to take my word for it." Just search "address" in this forum, and see all the stories.

FWIW, I hate the fact that everyone else gets SWU. I understand why. Regardless, once you make 1MM, your second is much easier, so you'll get your SWU soon enough (assuming they keep the programme going).

jeelele

A friend of fine attempted this as he had a legitimate address in Asia. He did get his 4 eVIPs on crossing 1MM but a few months down when he changed back his address to US, all his eVIPs were taken away and his account went into negative. Luckily for him, he was back in positive upon making EXP.

FYI, he even missed out on 8 500-milers. My advise, do not attempt it and try to stay within rules.

ukor

I just passed 1MM. Oddly enough it was a flight where someone passed 11MM. They made a big announcement, it was straight out of the movie Up in the Air sans the chief pilot.

skywalkerLAX

Wohooo !!

Program to Date Miles 1,003,318

Thanks FT, I learned it all on here!! ^

Now working on that second Million... Not having the option of CC spent etc makes it tough though.

tbrein

Crossed 1MM when my CC purchases posted today. Can't wait to see my Gold status show on my account along with the upgrade stickers.
Thanks FT for all the tips on how to accumulate miles.

josephstern

Congrats!

Why no option of CC spend? Between Citi and Amex SPG, you can make something work?

sdsearch

But did I say you should do any of those things I recommended only once right before your miles are to expire?

AA miles currently don't expire until after 1.5 years of inactivity, but I recommneded doing something 1 or even 2 times a year just to be safe.

There are various things you can do to keep miles safe from expiring. There are even websites devoted to the issue.

I don't, however, see why AA should feel that this is something they should give automatically just because you got 80 credit card signup bonuses or bought a houseful of pudding. (These are actual ways some peoople have gotten lifetime status in the past!)

In fact, if you search enough on FT you can find a disucssion some time back where someone claimed that AA was considering changing LT Gold/Platinum to require a minimum amount of flying per year or else a fee, to maintain such "lifetime" status! Had you read that discussion, I don't think you'd be bringing up the exact opposite (allow unlimited inactivity) as something AA would consider.

(In other words, whatever you might like about the proposal, I just do not see what would be in it for AA. Especially since AA makes lifetime status tons easier to earn than any other airline in the world.)

sdsearch

I can't speak for anyone else, and I'm not the person you were addressing this to, but actual card spend was a trivial part of my 1MM and then 2MM. Without having a business nor a super high income, and not being able to put my rent or my car payments (my two biggest expenses) on a credit card (without paying unreasonable fees), I just can't get as much credit card spend miles from one year of spending as I can from even the most meager card signup bonus.

So I think that for many (who don't have high business spending), it's only card signup bonuses, not routine spending, that made big dents toward 1MM/2MM. (In my case, I estimate over 400K during the last couple "glory years" of Citi "50 day" churn. But that's gone, and I'm not at all sure that I could earn the next MM anywhere near as fast as the last MM because of that.)