purpleskiesfly

I rec'd mine earlier this year and they're good till Feb 2010:

Available VP Upgrade Balance: 4
These Upgrades Expire on February 28, 2010 How Earned: 2008 Million Miler Threshold

(but hold on, be prepared to receive at least 10 contradictory answers )

oklAAhoma

Welcome to posting on FlyerTalk.

Please let me be the first to contradict your post. I absolutely do not agree...

that there will be at least 10 contradicatory answers. I predict 6-8 tops.

Biz

OK, I've just experienced a moment of panic. Yesterday (as posted earlier) my husband and mother in law shared a bunch of miles with me. My expectation is that these can be used as part of the 2M miles needed for lifetime Platinum. Since miles transferred in from hotel accounts count toward this, it makes sense to me that miles we had to pay for to share also count. Does anyone have any information on this? Thanks!

Just when you think you've thought of everything, you think of something else!

pushback

I don't think miles you transfer in from other accounts add into your lifetime mileage counter since these miles already got counter in someone else's mileage counter. If you had bought miles those would count. I may be wrong but I think that's how it works.

futaris

No. If you transfer miles into your account, they add onto your lifetime mileage counter. NB, this is cause you're essentially paying for the transfer of miles.

That being said, you can only transfer a max of 25k per go, and usually only 15k/yr.

However, there is currently a special offer:

Share more miles. For a limited time, transfer up to 100,000 miles and receive up to 100,000 miles.

Offer ends December 31, 2008.

Biz

Thanks. Well, it's done now, so I hope they count. I ended up paying around $800 by the time it was all said and done. So I do hope they count. Just waiting now for the SPG miles to transfer. That usually takes a few days, so it should all be there by early next week. Fingers crossed.:

Stripy

I must be missing something here because, if the above is correct, what is to stop someone creating a dummy miles account, transferring 100k miles into it from their real account and then transferring them right back again therefore topping up their lifetime miles by 100k?

rrgg

Only about $2240 is stopping you.

Can continue discussion here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...=753022&page=3

pushback

Interesting to note that although that looks like an AA web page, the URL actually says points.com. So these miles are actually coming from an external sourse, in which case I would expect them to count in the lifetime bucket. But man, that's pricey.

Biz

The miles that I transferred from other accounts did post and it did push my balance up, so hopefully, everything is ok. And it was a little pricey, but worth it to me to keep my status for next year. Like I said, I didn't travel enough this year to stay platinum, but I will be traveling a lot again next year. After 10 years of being platinum or EP it was hard to think about being Gold.

mvoight

Why spend money transferring miles around that you already have, instead of just buying them? If you want to maximize your miles

1. Transfer 100K from someone
2. Buy 60K
3. Have someoen buy you 60K (gift miles)

Then on Jan 1, you can redo this for whatever the limits are

It's not to bad. Currently 90K buys a business class ticket to Europe
It would be cheaper then buying the normal business class ticket.

Biz

[QUOTE=mvoight;10321005]Why spend money transferring miles around that you already have, instead of just buying them?

It costs a lot more to buy miles than to share miles. $625 to buy 25K miles vs. $250 to share.

Bostom

Bit bittersweet that it happened today, this morning, September 11th, but the counter says 2,000,050 because (some) of the Avis miles from a rental last month dropped into the account last night. Gotta call Avis about that 750 mile AAdvantage bonus...and gotta thank so many people here for sound advice, helpful hints, and the realization that you have to work it to make sure the points you earn for the money you spend - not just the flights you fly - work for you.

I'm proof it's worth it: AA EXP for the last four years, PLT before that, and a TWA red card (what was it before "Aviators"?) until 2000 have brought me some great flights (and a few bad ones, too) and now my continuing loyalty brings me an amazing lump of e-VIP's too - there's four left from this year, eight for next (I requalified for EXP this year in June) and four more due me for crossing 125K which will happen the next time I fly westbound under a promo running this year.

I read it here. I forgot who wrote it but it's been the most useful way to explain why I do it. When people say, "You must be crazy, flying just to fly," I just tell 'em I like to go really fast. Which is how the miles pile up, too.

To paraphrase Norma Desmond: "You see, this is my life! It always will be! Piling up the points! Nothing else! Just us, the airplanes, and those wonderful people out there in the dark!...on Flyertalk! All right, Mr. Randy, I'm ready for my close-up."

Ross0

Congrats! I passed 1MM marker today. Got a looong way to go till 2MM.

billgrates3

don't be so sure.... for example, I passed 1MM only 18 months ago, after joining aadvantage in 1990. Now i'm almost to 1.6MM