Elite Status Without Flying or Staying
Oct 28, 2004 | 9:39 pm
#46
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: STL
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I belileve that the situation on AA rail codeshares in Europe is that you must have a connecting flight from North America to even book the rail segment. If you get the rail segment, however, it earns EQM and EQP like any other AA codeshare.
Nov 5, 2004 | 9:49 am
#47
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Orlando, FL
Programs: CO Gold, AA Plat, DL Gold, US Chairman's Preferred, Starwood Plat, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 187
I found another one -- the Delta AirElite Business Jet program gives you one DL status mile for every dollar you spend on the program. This includes not just business jet service, but also fees for hiring AirElite for fleet management, etc.
Nov 11, 2004 | 9:39 am
#48
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Orlando, FL
Programs: CO Gold, AA Plat, DL Gold, US Chairman's Preferred, Starwood Plat, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 187
Originally Posted by Ferdinand Magellan
I thought that it might be helpful to list the ways to achieve airline elite status without flying. Here are the ones I know:
(1) 1M AA miles, from any source, gives you lifetime Gold status. 2M AA miles gives you lifetime Platinum status.
(2) DL (Amex) and US (Visa) offer credit cards with status mile bonuses for large annual purchases. DL Amex also offers 5K MQMs on signup. I have read that US allows multiple credit cards, so three 10K status mile bonuses (for $75K in purchases) would give you Silver status. US's Signature Visa card also offers many of the benefits of Silver status.
(3) Amex's Centurion Card offers Gold status on CO, DL and US. $125K in Amex Platinum purchases in one year (and other things) to qualify; $2500 annual fee.
(4) Some airline business programs, like CO's Reward One program, offer Silver status as a reward for certain numbers of "points."
(5) DL threshold awards allow one member meeting the status mile threshold to confer elite status upon another member -- 75K for one Silver, 125K for one Gold. For UA, 125K for one Premier. For NW, 1200 Platinum Points (Y travel & above) for one Silver, 2400 for one Gold. For Air Canada, 200K for one Elite (mid tier) and 300K for one Super Elite (top tier).
(6) Matching -- see the status match master thread.
(7) Promos -- from time to time, some airlines offer trial status. CO and America West did last year, for instance.
(8) Partners -- As pointed out below, AAdvantage Cruises offer up to 10,000 AA status miles (3 long cruises = AA Gold), Amtrak Metroliner and Acela BOS-NY or NY-DC gives up to 750 CO status miles RT, buying a Jaguar gives you BA Silver, DL AirElite Business Jet gives you 1 DL status mile for each $ spent, and SAS Radisson hotels offer up to 500 SAS status points per night.
(9) Some corporate travel offices reportedly can confer elite status on a limited number of flyers.
Any others?
(1) 1M AA miles, from any source, gives you lifetime Gold status. 2M AA miles gives you lifetime Platinum status.
(2) DL (Amex) and US (Visa) offer credit cards with status mile bonuses for large annual purchases. DL Amex also offers 5K MQMs on signup. I have read that US allows multiple credit cards, so three 10K status mile bonuses (for $75K in purchases) would give you Silver status. US's Signature Visa card also offers many of the benefits of Silver status.
(3) Amex's Centurion Card offers Gold status on CO, DL and US. $125K in Amex Platinum purchases in one year (and other things) to qualify; $2500 annual fee.
(4) Some airline business programs, like CO's Reward One program, offer Silver status as a reward for certain numbers of "points."
(5) DL threshold awards allow one member meeting the status mile threshold to confer elite status upon another member -- 75K for one Silver, 125K for one Gold. For UA, 125K for one Premier. For NW, 1200 Platinum Points (Y travel & above) for one Silver, 2400 for one Gold. For Air Canada, 200K for one Elite (mid tier) and 300K for one Super Elite (top tier).
(6) Matching -- see the status match master thread.
(7) Promos -- from time to time, some airlines offer trial status. CO and America West did last year, for instance.
(8) Partners -- As pointed out below, AAdvantage Cruises offer up to 10,000 AA status miles (3 long cruises = AA Gold), Amtrak Metroliner and Acela BOS-NY or NY-DC gives up to 750 CO status miles RT, buying a Jaguar gives you BA Silver, DL AirElite Business Jet gives you 1 DL status mile for each $ spent, and SAS Radisson hotels offer up to 500 SAS status points per night.
(9) Some corporate travel offices reportedly can confer elite status on a limited number of flyers.
Any others?
Dec 20, 2004 | 9:55 am
#49
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Orlando, FL
Programs: CO Gold, AA Plat, DL Gold, US Chairman's Preferred, Starwood Plat, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 187
New program: Lufthansa's HON Circle program allows the participant to designate a Senator (mid-tier) member for two years. 600K status miles over two years, including up to 100K on LH Airrail, to qualify.
Last edited by Ferdinand Magellan; Dec 20, 2004 at 10:00 am
Dec 25, 2004 | 9:05 pm
#50
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Atlanta, GA
Posts: 165
Originally Posted by pinniped
Another question: is there any airline that will kick in a low-elite status to a super-elite hotel member? It works the other way around all the time - AA Plat automatically hooked me up with a couple of mid-level hotel statuses (HH and SPG and I think it even got me a Hyatt status one year, but I can't quite remember). Not sure if there's ever been a promo like this: it would be super-elite hotel gets you airline silver, probably with tight targeting, if anything.
-Sabrina
Dec 25, 2004 | 10:12 pm
#51
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Monterey, CA
Programs: AA Lifetime GLD, SPG Gold, UCLA Alum ('96)
Posts: 540
Hotel status for elite status...
When I made NW Silver back in 2001, Starwood gave out free Gold status for NW Silvers. They have maintained my Gold status as I maintained my Silver status (of course, it's all going away next year. 
)
- Sameer
)- Sameer
Jan 15, 2005 | 5:29 pm
#52
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Orlando, FL
Programs: CO Gold, AA Plat, DL Gold, US Chairman's Preferred, Starwood Plat, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 187
New program: The United Elite Prepaid Travel Card offers 1K (high-tier) status for $20K of prepaid travel, Premier Executive (mid-tier) for $10K, and Premier (low-tier) for $5K. Travel is only for the card-holder, and you lose roughly 50% for any balance remaining on 2/28/06.
Jan 29, 2005 | 5:37 pm
#53
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Orlando, FL
Programs: CO Gold, AA Plat, DL Gold, US Chairman's Preferred, Starwood Plat, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 187
According to a post in the Visa/MC forum, people have received UA Visa solicitations recently stating that if you spend $10,000 in the first six months, the 10,000 UA miles that you receive will count as UA status points (EQMs). This is similar to US Air's 12-month offer. Also, Air France's American Express gold card, when linked to a euro account in France, offers one status mile per euro.
Last edited by Ferdinand Magellan; Feb 4, 2005 at 4:52 pm
Jun 4, 2005 | 7:46 am
#54
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Orlando, FL
Programs: CO Gold, AA Plat, DL Gold, US Chairman's Preferred, Starwood Plat, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 187
UA Plat Visa for Status Miles
UA Visa is offering a new Platinum card modeled on DL's Platinum Amex. You get 5000 UA status miles for signing up, another 5000 for spending $35K in one year, and up to another 5000 for each dollar spent at united.com. Also 15,000 "bonus" miles, and an annual companion ticket, for $140. Not as generous as DL Plat Amex, but a good start.
Aug 2, 2005 | 1:32 pm
#55
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Orlando, FL
Programs: CO Gold, AA Plat, DL Gold, US Chairman's Preferred, Starwood Plat, Hyatt Diamond
Posts: 187
New Program: For $299 a year, United passengers can sit in Economy Plus (five more inches of leg room) when space is available. That's one of the main advantages of Premier membership. For $749, you also get the "Premier Fast Track," which reduces the Premier qualification requirement by 10,000 status miles and 15 segments.
Last edited by Ferdinand Magellan; Aug 4, 2005 at 9:20 am
Aug 2, 2005 | 1:47 pm
#56
In memoriam
Join Date: May 2005
Location: DAL
Programs: SWA A list preferred and CP, Hilton Lifetime Diamond, Hertz President's club
Posts: 9,803
Originally Posted by Ferdinand Magellan
I found another one -- the Delta AirElite Business Jet program gives you one DL status mile for every dollar you spend on the program. This includes not just business jet service, but also fees for hiring AirElite for fleet management, etc.
http://www.airelite.com/membership01b.html
Aug 2, 2005 | 2:39 pm
#57
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 648
Originally Posted by Ferdinand Magellan
Aug 2, 2005 | 3:46 pm
#58
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Massachusetts, USA; AA 2.996MM & Plat Pro, DL 1MM, GM & Flying Colonel
Posts: 25,037
Citibank offered 5,000 AA status qualifying miles as part of a credit card bonus offer, according to this thread. However, posts there indicate that the offer was either withdrawn quickly or is randomly sporadic. (I looked for it too, could really use 5K AA Q-miles this year, it didn't show up.)
Aug 3, 2005 | 6:41 pm
#59
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: IAD
Programs: BA silver, LH ex-sen
Posts: 214
Originally Posted by kersie
Any idea how long it takes these MQMs to post? I just checked my Delta account, and just from a lot of casual flying this year plus what I have left, I'll be pretty darn close with an extra 5K MQMs (about 1.5K MQM short, but that should be easy to fix, and the worst part is that I'd actually definitely meet it based on travel, but I've had 2 award trips this year :-)).
Call them, explain the situation and beg. It could work.
Aug 8, 2005 | 9:20 am
#60
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 1998
Location: Massachusetts, USA; AA 2.996MM & Plat Pro, DL 1MM, GM & Flying Colonel
Posts: 25,037
New program: Flying Blue, AF/KLM. According to this thread in its new forum, you can get elite status miles via (aside from flying, natch) paying with an AF AmEx card linked to a Euro-denominated account in France and for buying/renewing an AF Abonnement card for flight discounts.
Another nice benefit is, once you exceed the mileage for their top elite level by a certain threshhold, additional miles count toward the following year's qualification. So, you could qualify in the second year without flying that year (trying to tie this back to the subject of the thread), though you would have to have flown a heck of a lot the year before! (If you're based in France, you get Platinum for 90K miles; miles over 150K count toward the following year's status. If you're based outside France, the figures are 70K/115K.)
Another nice benefit is, once you exceed the mileage for their top elite level by a certain threshhold, additional miles count toward the following year's qualification. So, you could qualify in the second year without flying that year (trying to tie this back to the subject of the thread), though you would have to have flown a heck of a lot the year before! (If you're based in France, you get Platinum for 90K miles; miles over 150K count toward the following year's status. If you're based outside France, the figures are 70K/115K.)