A couple of points (might have been mentioned above):

1. DL awards lifetime GM status at 2MM, which is ST E+! (These are all MQMs, and not just the BIS, but also the MQMs from the cc spends/bonuses/signup offers).

2. OZ awards lifetime Diamond Plus status (*G) after 500K miles! I believe that's the easiest lifetime status to achieve!

BAEC awards Gold for Life upon reaching 35,000 Tier Points and Gold Guest List for Life upon reaching 100,000 Tier Points

SK gives life-time EuroBonus Gold for being 60+ years old and must have qualified 10 years (not necessarily consecutive) of SK*G

Does the OZ 500k lifetime status require any segments on OZ or could I fly on any *A member and be granted that status?

From OZ's Website

Finnair

3 million TP = Lifetime Gold (=OWS)
5 million TP = Lifetime Plat (=OWE)

(1 km flown = 1 TP + CoS + elite multipliers)

Hey, I'm new here but an experienced CC and miles guy... for many years.
Anyone know of any cc hacks to get the OZ 500K miles? Like Delta MQMs from Amex but for OZ?

New US is it AA + UA = Lifetime AA
 

I have combined over 4MM in the new AA account but not have seen change in my lifetime status. What is the best way to approach this with new AA to get lifetime status?

You probably do have it. I have been Lifetime Platinum for a long time, when I logon it only says Platinum - no mention of Lifetime although I did receive a nice letter from Micheal Gunn (I think that was his name) welcoming me when I hit 2mm. As many have mentioned the count moves very slow now.

Nope. Out of the US soil, none of the miles transfered from CC are status earning.

Only solely BIS.

I don't how you would be able to "hack" your way into lifetime elite with Delta either. It would take decades by MQM bonuses. At that point might as well just fly.

attempted summary: lifetime status
 

Hello everyone. I tried this some years ago, will try again now. I see that there are numerous threads on lifetime top elite FF status but none too comprehensive I think.

So, I will attempt a brief summary to see if I got this right - so, please go ahead and correct me ! I will then edit this post on the basis of the info received in later posts. I will do this only for the three major alliances, as I guess this is what most of us are in for.

PLEASE SEND YOUR CORRECTIONS / INFO / COMMENTS SO THAT I CAN UPDATE THIS LIST IN THIS SAME MESSAGE WHICH WILL STAY AT THE TOP :)


Sky Team

* AF/KL: Lifetime Platinum after 10 consecutive years of membership at the Platinum level

* DL: Lifetime Silver, then Gold, then Platinum, then Executive Platinum, after 1M, 2M, 3M, 4M respectively of "Medallion Qualifying Miles", i.e. from any ST flights

* KE: Lifetime Million Miler after 1M miles on any ST flights


Star Alliance

* BM: Lifetime Gold after 10 consecutive years of membership at the Gold level

* CA: Lifetime Platinum after 1M kms on CA-coded flights only

* MS: Lifetime Platinum after 1M miles on MS flights (or all *A flights ??)

* OZ: Lifetime Platinum after 1M miles on Star Alliance flights

* SA: Lifetime Platinum after 6 consecutive years of membership at the Platinum level

* LH: Lifetime Senator after 10 consecutive years of membership at such level, but only if aged 60+

* UA: Lifetime Silver, Gold, Platinum, 1K, after 1M, 2M, 3M, 4M respectively, but only flown on UA metal (no longer CM)


One World

* AA: Lifetime Platinum after 2M miles from any source [However, NB: as AA Platinum, you get no lounge access in AA lounges when travelling on AA domestically, while you would get access as OW Sapphire with another airline, right ?]

* QF: Lifetime Gold after 14,000 status credits

* BA: Lifetime Gold after 5,000 tier points

attempted summary: lifetime status
 

First comment: BM left Star years ago ;)

I don't think DL has Executive Platinum.

BA's lifetime is 35,000 SCs or TP as they call it.

KE and OZ lifetime, both can be had for 500,000 miles. Can be ST / * alliance flights

DL does not have an Executive Platinum - the highest level is Diamond.

And as you hit million miler marks you become a million miler. Currently a one million miler gets complementary silver status but there is no guarantee that million miler status will continue to mean complementary status for a lifetime. That is true for all levels.

A 2 million miler currently gets complementary gold status. A 4 million miler currently gets complementary platinum status. There is no complementary diamond status - at least not one that is published.

You need to define what "1M miles on xx flights" really means. Not all airlines have the same definition.
Is it actual flown miles or redeemable miles (flown miles and bonus miles due to status, whatever)?
AA changed their definition a few years ago.

A some what similar thread on another topic
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nt-expire.html

attempted summary: lifetime status
 

UA is incorrect. Should be lifetime Gold at 1MM; Plat at 2MM; 1K at 3MM; and GS at 4MM.

You should make a wiki.

CA is not in *A.

Agree.
Disagree.

CA is Air China and a Star Alliance member http://www.iata.org/publications/Pages/code-search.aspx
http://www.staralliance.com/en/member-airlines

Useful summary Overview of Frequent Flyer Programs by FLYGVA. Includes life time status, but may be up to date

AA offers Lifetime Gold at 1MM and Lifetime Platinum at 2MM. Miles can be earned as qualifying miles on any oneWorld carrier as well as selected partners. Note: it's flown miles only, there are no 500 mile minimums even for elites.

This is several years out of date. AA only includes BiS now.

As already noted, it's not from any source any more. That ended in December 2011. (Any Million Miler miles you earned from any source before December 2011 count, but from December 2011 onward only "butt-in-seat" miles count.)

There's Lifetime Gold after 1M Million Miler miles, and Lifetime Platinum after 2M Million Miler miles.

Yes, Platinum only gets you lounge access on days your flying internationally. But if you choose to get lifetime status on another OW airline, while flying AA, you have to give up lots of other perks (including upgrades) on AA for an extremely high number of flights to do so.

Meanwhile, who knows how this will work ten years from now. And anyone choosing today which airline to start collecting lifetime miles at is likely to need at least ten years to get to second-level-up lifetime.

So I don't see the point of pursuing lifetime status with another OW airline (if that's going to take anywhere around 1MM of flying AA) when you can buy domestic lounge access for just a few hundred dollars a year (or get it with a credit card that costs a few hundred dollars a year).

Executive Platinum is an AA status (which is not available in lifetime form). The status at Delta above Platinum is called Diamond.


There's lifetimes status at hotel chains too. If you're not going to cover those here, then I suggest you notify an operator to fix the thread title, as it's not clear from the current thread title that it's about alliance airlines only.

(No, not everyone might care about only alliance airlines. In the US specifically, some people might prefer to pursue lifetime status with Alaska if that's available.)

And be careful about all many-year-plans. Could you have predicted 10+ years ago that US would shift for *A to OW, and thus that any liftetime status there would shift from one alliance to another? That happened in South America too, when TAM shifted the same way when it was acquired by LAN. How do you some more of these (not founding) airlines of an alliance won't shift alliances in the next decade or two?

So i think it's much safer, if you're after a particular alliance, to pursue lifetime status with a founding member of that alliance rather than some second-tier member of the alliance.

And, btw, speaking of hotel chains, it's not necessarily unrelated to airlines: Marriott has a tie-in with United, whereby Marriott Platinum members can get complimentary United Silver status (but no higher level). As long as that continues, Marriott Lifetime Platinum is a backdoor way of effectively getting (maybe) lifetime United Silver.

And vice versa. Gold on United gets you Gold on Marriott.

And it is BD, not BM. :-:

Wiki created and some of the more egregious errors fixed. Feel free to update it rather than just posting comments here.

Updated the wiki on OZ

Finnair offers lifetime status too.

I didn't think LH lifetime senator was an official thing than was only based on this?
SK has a similar thing, lifetime gold after 10 years of EBG if aged above 60. Does not need to be consecutive. However it's being updated this summer.

KE 500k mile requirement for lifetime status, does that need to be achieved within 10 years? I can't see my wife achieving that within that time frame :/

Do you think it will disappear?
I couldn't find any information about it on their website.

https://www.koreanair.com/global/en/...els-table.html
I don't see anything on KE's website to indicate that limitation. The only listed parameter is miles flown.



On an unrelated note, it's worth noting that SA will grant Lifetime Platinum not only for 6 years of Platinum status, but also for 720,000 Tier Miles acquired over 4-6 consecutive years. At 6 years it balances out to qualifying for Plat normally, but if you can average 180,000 Tier Miles in four years you will get lifetime *A Gold that way. Not quite as good a deal as OZ, but still a solid option especially if you fly to Africa at all.

Update: SK dropped the 60+ years requirement. 10 years holding (not necessarily consecutive) Gold or Diamond status will grant lifetime SK EuroBonus (A*) Gold.

Shall we add NH in this master thread?
 

Just to provide some additional information, as NH launched the LT status a few years ago, which also included miles flown on award tickets, but you have to retroactively request it.

https://www.ana.co.jp/wws/us/e/asw_c...miler-program/

I wondered what other FFPs allow award tickets to be credited as LT miles.

Whilst not strictly award tickets, British Airways allows their award points (avios) to be used to discount the cash price of any normal revenue fare. Flights purchased in this way will count towards status.

A number of hotel chains allow award nights to count towards status.

Seems to be missing Air Canada:

1MM lifetime AC Elite 50k (*Gold)
2MM lifetime AC Elite 75k (*Gold) plus AC Elite 50k (*Gold) for a nominee
3MM lifetime AC SuperElite 100k (*Gold)

Miles are status miles including CoS on AC only

Wiki updated for NH.

Perhaps the weakest aspect for NH LT membership is that there will be no LT status(Gold/Platinum/Diamond) even if you achieve the milestones. I checked that with their customer service. It's just that you can get LT miles on award tickets, which, however, help you to get something back on NH :/

If only that were true!!!!

It's actually after 35,000 tier points.

That is my plan.

My wife and I have lifetime United Club membership (originally CO Presidents Club), so that would be a good combination for us.

Oneworld: IB offers lifetime as well:

Infinita (OW Emerald)
https://www.iberia.com/gb/en/iberiaplus/infinita/
To get this card you need to have obtained 125.000 Elite Points since you signed up to the Iberia Plus programme. Once you get it, this card will be for life.

Infinita Prime (OW Emerald)
https://www.iberia.com/gb/en/iberiaplus/infinita-prime/
To get this card you need to have obtained 200,000 Elite Points since you signed up to the Iberia Plus programme. Once you get it, this card will be for life.

Wiki updated for IB