Good one! Thanks!

Lufthansa Private Jet offers 10,000 LH status miles for each flight. Currently, flights cost at least 6900 euros (inside Germany and some destinations in France, Italy and Switzerland).

CO has increased the status miles earned by the Chase Presidential Plus card, from 2000 status miles for each $15K to 1000 status miles for each $5K. CO also has removed the annual 28,000 status mile limit.

Delta's private jet subsidiary, Delta Air Elite, offers Diamond Medallion status for two. All it takes is a $100,000 deposit.

The deposit is non refundable.

sucks....

Delta just announced a promo for earning Medallion Qualifying Miles (MQMs) from Hilton stays. Your Hilton account must be set up to give Delta miles. If you opt for the variable mileage version, you get 1 MPM/$ up to 10,000. If you get the fixed mileage version, it's 500 MQM/stay. Only stays of two or more nights count.

Must register via this page first, but apparently not targeted.

There will probably be some discussion in the Delta forum, though nobody's started it yet, but it seems to fit this thread too.

ooh thanks! Need a few points to make plat.

With registration, 50,000 Amex Membership Rewards Points gets you 75,000 Delta redeemable miles PLUS 25,000 Delta status miles. Details on this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...-transfer.html

That's enough status miles for automatic Silver status on DL, or one step up from whatever DL status you otherwise would have (Silver becomes Gold, Gold becomes Platinum, etc.).

I've been shepherding this thread for six years, and I've never seen a promo like this before.

Not as lucrative as the offer Ferdinand posted above, but Delta is also awarding status-yielding MQMs/EQMs, up to 15,000 of them, for charitable donations to three specific organizations. No flying required. Full discussion is here.

The causes are great, and *before* accounting for any tax benefits, the cost amounts to 10 cents/MQM. When including tax benefits, which will naturally vary, your net cost could be substantially lower. Don't forget that you're doing a lot of good by participating in this one, too.

From FrequentFlier.com:

Elite-Qualifying Miles

Miles that qualify for elite status have traditionally been restricted to those miles earned by flying on the airline hosting the program and its closest airline partners, generally those co-participating in one of the major global airline alliances.

Increasingly, the exception to that rule is miles earned for charges to airline credit cards.

For example, the Continental Presidential Plus MasterCard awards 1,000 elite-qualifying miles for every $5,000 charged to the card.

The Delta Platinum credit card allows SkyMiles members to earn 20,000 elite miles annually, and the Reserve card raises that limit to 30,000 miles.

With the United Mileage Plus Select Visa card, cardholders can earn up to 5,000 elite miles per year.

And US Airways' Premier MasterCard allows cardholders to earn up to 10,000 elite miles per year.

In the hotel sphere, where elite perks are less valued, some cards linked to frequent-stay programs offer status outright. With Marriott's Visa card, for example, Rewards members get Silver elite status automatically.

InterContinental Priority Club Visa cardholders receive Gold elite status.

Silver elite membership is accorded HHonors members who hold either of the no-annual-fee Hilton-affiliated credit cards.

And so on.

US Airways is offering 3,500 elite-qualifying miles to those who purchase new US Airways Club annual airport lounge memberships, or renew existing memberships, by August 31. Also eligible for the bonus: upgrades from 90-day plans to annual memberships.

Individual memberships are priced at $450 for non-elites, $375 for Silver, Gold, and Platinum elites, and $325 for Chairman's Preferred elites. The 90-day plans cost $120. (Note: Annual membership includes access to all US Airways Clubs, United Red Carpet Clubs, Continental Presidents Clubs, and Star Alliance lounges; 90-day plans only include US Airways' lounges.)

The $50 "enrollment fee" for new memberships is waived with this offer.

To earn the bonus, use promo code CLB35 when enrolling online, calling 1-800-828-8522, or signing up at a US Airways Club.

The Citi Executive/AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard:
�10,000 EQMs after charging $40,000

Annual fee of $450.
Airport lounge membership. (Normally, an annual Admirals Club membership costs $500. So you could think of this as a $50 discount on lounge access.)

Also:
�No foreign transaction fees
�Priority check-in, airport screening, and boarding privileges
�Waived baggage fees for first domestic checked bag
�Concierge service from Citi
�No cap on earned miles

The annual percentage rate on outstanding balances is variable, currently at 15.24 percent.

New cardholders earn 25,000 bonus miles after charging $1,000 to the card within the first four months.

AA recently added this card, which for high spenders can help a bit with elite status (10k EQMs after $40k of spend in a year), Admirals Club Membership, and more, for a $450 annual fee:

https://www.aa.com/i18n/urls/citiexecutive.jsp

(Of course, annual AC club membership already costs close to that, so if you were going to pay for an annual AC club membership anyway, then the net annual fee is much less for you.)

This has been around for a while, but anyway, after you book a ticket on Continental, you have the choice of getting more miles for additional payment with the One Pass Maximizer. This comes in two flavors, the Maximizer and the Elite Maximizer. The Elite Maximizer gives you both status miles and redeemable miles. You can book a refundable flight, take the Elite Maximzer option, get the status miles and redeemable miles, and then cancel the flight. Only the fare is returned to you; the miles, and the charge for the miles, remains in effect. According to Continental's website:

http://www.continental.com/CMS/en-US...lServices.aspx

the cost is 8 cents per mile (status and redeemable combined), but it actually varies from time to time. According to recent reports on FlyerTalk, it's now around 7 cents per mile. So, for instance, for $1750 of this, you'd get 25,000 status miles and Silver status, plus 25,000 redeemable miles.