TomBrew

Use your AAdvantage credit card to buy a huge amount of coffee or caffeine pills. Consume them, and then play Flexicon on Live Search Club nonstop. 25 points per game, and 4300 points gets you 2500 miles.

steve32

I've been summoned!

Yeah, a million RDM in 16 months, but it would not have been possible without taking ruthless AAdvantage of AAdvantage's 25th AAnniversary specials, plus AA breaking into Dallas-Love Field (my very first MR was 2.5 days of RTs scoring those FLY3 bonuses, with the initial positioning flight cancelled due to mechanical and having to re-route and adjust the nested RTs for the bonus to fix the schedule again).

The biggest thing was flying, scoring 273k RDM in 2006 for 55k BIS! (and having started with no status--no more sneaking in a "double challenge" with the new fees) with the average cost just under 1 CPM. ^ (2007 was a bit more than 150k at about 1.5 CPM; this year will be a slightly higher CPM unless AA comes through on another year-end flying bonus). Many thanks to WAS locals and lurkers at Mileage Run Deals at helping me tweak my itineraries to max the benefits! :-: My advice is to always just hold a reservation at first, then walk away from it for a few hours and come back to it with a fresh eye, both re-examining the routing options to find a possible better deal, and to make sure all the flight specifics are correct for what you are about to purchase--as your eyes/brain starts to gloss over details after hours of examining routings and building itineraries.

Next was Dining Rewards, scoring max pulls at five restaurants in each of the two months of the 25 miles/$ anniversary special bonus, plus other deals. :-: Gift certificates/cards are your friend here, to maximize scooping of miles during the promos and eating them off between them.

Third was converting Marriott Rewards points saved up from my timeshare and other Marriott activity.

Did everything else that I could find--churning CCs, promos, E-rewards (not available anymore), Opinion Place, etc. Currently that would include MSN Live Search Club.

Also wheedled another 20,000 miles out of AA Promotions Department, winning the September 2006 Grand Prize for an essay as to why I thought I was a Mileage Maniac. (Link to winners; my essay described how I was acquiring the miles "like a maniac")


Without the anniversary bonuses, the only way I see grabbing that many miles in that time frame is to at least achieve ExPlat (100k BIS is at least 200k RDM), going nuts in Dining/Hotel Rewards (hopefully he loves wine and/or can host groups on his CC); and/or score huge on a fantastic promotion (like Pudding Guy some years ago, or recently gopherblue who scored more than 600k miles with that Swiss-made cheese promo--unfortunately I missed that as I was not able to find anyplace within two states of me that was selling it, and Costco wasn't taking me seriously towards helping me arrange a pallet or two of cheese to be delivered to them for me and others in this area to buy).

Steve

mvoight

Why? What benefit are they trying to achieve?
Seriously. Earning 500K is possible, but it depends on a lot of things?
For example, how much money can they spend on their credit cards?
How many miles do they plan on flying?
Does the cost of the miles matter?

JPHILLIPS5

The quickest way to earn 500,000 miles in 2009 is to deposit $500,000 in guaranty bank airlines checking account. Account will earn 50,000 miles per month, that is 600,000 miles in a 12 month period. Question is if you friend has this kind of cash to tie up.

MileageGoblin

I would advise keeping it to $250k per bank per the newly implemented FDIC insurance regulations.

brp

Per bank, per account type, assuming that the new FDIC rules changed only the amount and not the fundamental rules. An individual and a joint account at the same bank, for example, would cover for $750,000 ($500,000 in the joint account and $250,000 in the individual). Again, that's if the basic rules are the same.

Cheers.

steve32

Read somewhere around the forums on FT recently that someone turned in more than 4 million Marriott Rewards points into 17 Fly&Stay awards over the course of a single week, which earned him 2.04 million miles in AA, earning him Lifetime Platinum in just a WEEK!

Sounds to me like a record hard to beat.

Earning miles at the requested speed is very hard without having another resource that can be used to generate lots of miles...or very exceptional circumstances--like a great set of anniversary promotions one can take AAdvantage of, or a mistake redeeming scheme (both of which still require the tying up of a measure of funds and effort for a period of time to be able to pull off to full effect).

With the soon to come devaluation of Marriott Rewards points (on January 15, 2009), time to score some more of those awards to drain the account, and boost my miles.

Steve

sbagdon

Ruthless AAdvantage... nice!

And that's what LTL is for. I would have done it, just for the story.

Is the requirement 500,000 RDMs, or 500,000 miles towards MM? If just MM, that makes it easier, miles can bounce back-and-forth (even if they devalue). If wanting 500,000 RDMs in the account... that's a bit more of a challenge. Either way, you have to think big:

EXP - 200k right there, probably more like 250k-300k with bonuses, CSR mileage, etc.

Buy/Gift them - purchase 40k, gift in 15k, and that doesn't include any bonuses.

Swapping - SPG 20k->25k, Hilton 10k->1.5k, be creative. Convert 150k AA to 300k Hilton, then 300k Hilton back to 45k AA. Convert 150k AA to 120k ICH, then 120k ICH back to 24k AA (ok, that one just plain hurts, yet you get the idea). Be creative. points.com, hotel->airline... get creative.

LSC - "creative" use of the program will net some major miles.

With these requirements, 100s and 1000s aren't going to cut it. If it doesn't net 25k, move on to the next idea.

Steve B.

gopherblue

I did something similar to Steve32. I went from ~350K miles to 2MM+ in about 14-16 months. Biggest factor, other than BIS (including MRs and great bonus promos at the time) and Citi AA cards, was my sudden urge to buy ~1,400 packages of Swiss Knight cheesefood products, generating 500 miles EACH. My local food bank was very happy that year. Would've bought twice that amount, if a certain FT'er of questionable sense hadn't called the company and actually lectured them about how he was taking them to the cleaners on miles.

Goph

AAJetMan

Kebo--Congrats on your EXP achievement!!!! Hope to see you again on Euro runs this winter.

Others--I've not done this in a while, but is it still as easy as it was to get multiple CITI cards and thus multiple 25,000 awards (one for each card)?

3Cforme

'How to Earn Lots of Miles in a Hurry for no Cash and Little Effort'

Maybe the 'friend' is preparing a book outline for prospective publishers.

Venezuela-Miami

Excuse me for my Ignorance, but are you serious here?. First time I hear of this!. How that can be done?.

That would be like 120% percent in Yield on a 1USD/per Mile basis.

I Appreciate the info.

BR.

docr775

There is a link on the AA.com website, but here is the link to bankdirect:

http://www.bankdirect.com/

open an account

gemac

Nobody values AA miles at 1USD/per mile. I value AA miles at $0.01/mile. That makes it 1.2% tax-free yield, not too bad these days for a checking account.

GentleGiant

Maybe I am being stupid here or misreading your post, but aren't you losing points by swapping to Hilton and then back to AA??