Joined MP in 1982,
Made MM in Februay 2007

Dave

Probably the same way I went from 280,000 miles to 2MM+ in under two years...signing up for every promo, mileage running, iDining and prodigious use of AAdvantage and SPG credit cards. I was also helped along by close to 700,000 miles worth of the finest shelf-stable swiss cheese money could buy...all of which (save one wedge) was consumed via a very grateful food pantry.

By taking advantage of as many promotions as I could in the 25th anniversary year, thanks to FlyerTalk. 2006 flying netted me more than a quarter million RDM at 0.9901 cpm. There were lots of other promotions, I think with my taking top honors in earning RDM through Dining Rewards (at least for one who doesn't drink wine) averaging a very nice 22.4 miles/$ (and buying enough gift certificates to last a year!), and even winning 20k miles from AA marketing as the September 2006 Mileage Maniac grand prize winner (and yes, I included it in my income taxes--still came to less than a penny a mile).

I'm really bummed I couldn't find any of that Swiss company's cheese (that was in their AA miles certificates promotion) within two states of me. One guy scored nearly 700,000 miles off that for about a penny a mile!

My goal is Lifetime Platinum status, so I play the game a little differently than most here who are doing it for high status to make their business flying more comfortable. Thus I only shot for the 75k EQM level for the extra 15k RDM Platinum bonus, rather than going for 100k EQM and ExPlat status like most other AA FlyerTalkers here.

Without that exceptional anniversary year, and after using most of the one-time only promotions, my rate has been more normal. Currently at 1.3MM, not counting the potential miles that haven't yet been converted from Starwood points and Marriott Rewards points.

Compared to most others, it's pretty obvious from my FlightMemory maps and repetition stats that the majority of my flying has been Mileage Running.
Steve