I would like to attain premium elite status with one airline's frequent flyer program as quickly as possible. Is there any advice any of you have on ways to rapidly accellerate a program to achieve 100,000 mile status as soon as possible? I live in San Diego and travel internationally about ten or more times per year.
There are times I am able to take advantage of super last minute deals on cruise prices in Europe and Asia, for example, but cannot get the air at a low enough cost, quickly enough. Do you know of any frequent flyer programs that offer the ability to redeem air (e tickets) within the last seven days using frequent flyer miles?
Thanks for responding to [email protected].
If you include a mailing address I'll send you some greatly discounted cruise prices which some of you can take advantage of if you've got the air miles to use to get to them. Thanks, Tom Koebel 800-598-0595

Tom,

I hear two distinct questions in your post.

1. How to get status fast.
2. What is the best airline on which to spend miles?

What airline do you currently fly? Do you currently have status on any airline (most other airlines will comp you to equal status)? Is your international travel paid for by your company? Will they pay for business class? Do you have a choice of airlines?

If the answer to all of the above questions is "yes", then (especially living in San Diego) you should definitely take a look at becoming an MVP Gold Elite on Alaska Air. They let you book award travel (no charge) via the telephone on the day of flight if it is available and the choice of airline on which you can use miles includes, NWA, TWA, AA, CO, BA, KLM, CA, Lan Chile, and Quantas. They also have some pretty smoking credit card mileage accumulation programs.

You can earn miles on all partners and status miles on AA, CA (Codeshare), KLM, Lan Chile, and NWA.

All in all this is the best deal I have found and I have always been able to find the award flights I needed.

Hope this helps.

well - as you travel often to Europe with LH's miles&more (for members outside Germany) you need 100'000 status miles (any 12 subsequent months, no calendar year necessary) only the first time, renewing afterwards 'costs' only 80'000 miles.

And your top status (called Senator = StarAlliance Gold) is good for 24 months at least (some more months possible, depends of the timing you achieve Senator status). And if ever you fly business or first with any StarAlliance carrier, those bonus miles (business 100%, first 200%) count as status miles too.

And LH's upgrades (paid with miles) are good on any fare.

See "Best Bang for the Buck" The possibility of obtaining Platinum elite on CO or HP for 2 years by flying cross country for only 11 days on discounted tickets is discussed.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum20/HTML/000400.html

Just to mention one other option - American has a Gold and Platinum challenge (that has been discussed elsewhere), but it lets you obtain Elite status very quickly (1 or 2 flights) if you fly internationally, especially in business class or full fare. O think they also let you redemm for award travel last minute, although there is a $50 expedite fee.
Email me or search the board if you want more information on the Challenges.

Tom,

Or you can try to qualify for the Amex black card and get mid level (Continental Gold, etc.) with a bunch of carriers. The cost is $1,000 per year.