Lifetime status
 

Does anyone know if I can reach lifetime status on Continental without being a regular flyer? What I mean is, is it comparable to American Airlines which allows you to use ANY means of earning miles to achieve their lifetime status. I fly about once or twice a year but I use my credit cards for EVERYTHING. So I'm hoping to earn the status through miles earned via a credit card. Thank you!

No, miles earned through a Continental credit card do not count toward Million Miler status.

If you have the Presidential Plus card and earned the maximum number (28,000) flex EQM, you could hit MM in 35 years.

in all honesty, lifetime status doesn't do you much good if you're not a regular flyer anyway.

Unlike AA which counts ALL miles regardless of source, CO only counts BIS miles for lifetime miles status.

True! But I am hoping to do a lot of traveling in about 5 years or so.:) On another note do you think United Airlines is better or Continental? I'm trying to figure out which airline I should post all my flying miles onto.

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry9630/4.7.1.40 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

CO bases it on EQMs, not BIS miles. EQMs can come from sources other than BIS but there are not many of them.

Does CO lifetime include all EQMs (ie all airlines)? Whereas UA lifetime is only on United, United Express and Ted.

Yes sir, all miles that count as eqms on CO count towards lifetime status.

A fine line between pleasure and pain part deux :D or a couple of SQ RTWs should do it for you.

Thanks. I stand corrected.

I beg to differ. I'll use myself as an example. I'm 24, with still a ways to go until I hit MM. But I plan to travel quite a bit for the next 5-10 years. If I hit MM by the time i'm 35, i'll have at least Silver for the rest of my life. So if from 35-50 I only average a few thousand miles a year, but then at 50 I want to take my family on vacation I'll still have those Silver benefits (It's not much, but it's something)

Would you go out of your way to earn it for something you'd use once or twice a year starting 15+ years from now? Perhaps, but then again, your effort is probably more worthwhile applied somewhere else with a more tangible NPV benefit.

Yes if I was going out of my way to get to MM pretty much just for the sake of having it then it would be a waste. However as a nonmarried young guy I am at a point in my life where I have the least restrictions to pick up and visit friends in Dallas for the weekend or go to Italy for a few days (both of which I am doing in the next few weeks). I disregard any business travel that may come my way in the future because right now all my travel is for pleasure. So the way I see it, reaching MM and having that silver status for life is just an added benefit.

Right, you're looking to earn MM by flying you pretty much intended to do anyway through the next couple of years, therefore its not going out of your way. The OP is trying to earn it by not flying, and if thats the case (especially since CO cards don't work that way), then its probably more worthwhile using a credit card that provides other benefits.

I'd need a lot more than 2 RTWs to qualify, although I'm thinking nesting *A mega do II with a *A RTW may be a good start.

Does anyone know that CO has adjusted MM program in line with UA yet?
I heard CO now offers gold elite for 1MM to match with UA 1MM but I am not sure if it is true.

Wish that it was, but I suspect it is only wishful thinking.

Not at all the case. The programs are very different, with CO counting all EQMs and UA only counting UA metal, for instance. Or with CO granting the status to you and a Plus1 while UA is just for you.

If there is any coordination of those benefits it'll likely be after the merger.

Your CO MM 121,020? That means you have 878,980 EQMs to go for MM.

Your:

5 Year Average (per Year): 175,796 EQMs
6 Year: 146,497 EQMs
7 Year: 125,569 EQMs
8 Year: 109,873 EQMs
9 Year: 97,665 EQMs
10 Year: 87,898 EQMs

I would say 10-15 years if you healthily overshoot plat every year; longer if you just make 75K or have sub-75K years.

Good Luck. I have been flying pretty regularly since I have been 24 also and I will be 39 next week; I average 50K-75K a year; still at least 5-7 years away from MM for myself. It just might take longer than you think unless you have some uber job that you buy BF/FC/Y/B fares regularly and do 60-75K BIS.

Go for it! But I think 10-15 years in more realistic than 5-10, though. But, as always YMMV, and what do I know, I may just be a bitter old man. :)

- HF