"buying" elite status?
 

I never quite come close enough to get status on the airlines, but other than doing mileage runs, is there a way to "buy" your status?

Here's the thing - I am a business owner and on me and the other owners business credit cards, we charge probably $200k a year combined. They are NOT mileage cards, but I was thinking about getting them.

I fly about 10 times a year, mostly in the continental US on business, and I go to Europe 2-3 times a year, on business and pleasure.

If I get a business credit card, is it possible to have the miles go to a different person than the cardholder? I do most of the purchasing on my card, so if I got an awards card, I could probably get better status, but I also fly a fair bit so I may not need as much help, whereas I could use my purchasing to maybe get status for my father or brother using my CC points and have them deposit to someone else's account?

Finally, is there a way to get points by buying airline tickets if you don't end up using the ticket? What I mean is, if I was 10k miles short, I'd not mind buying a couple round trip tickets from BOS->LAX and back, but honestly I dont really have the time to take the flights. It seems the airline is mostly concerned with selling the tix, but I don't think they give miles if your butt isn't on the plane, right? So other than using a miles credit card, is there another way to get miles that doesn't include having to take a mileage run?

Thanks!

Other than US Air, who lets you earn 10k miles/yr towards elite status from their cc's, I'm not aware of any other airlines that let you earn EQM's via creditcard, only via flying.

And you can't just by tickets and earn the miles, you have to actually fly the segments.

Same with DL Amex, 10k MQM's if you spend over 25K. Several other airline affinity cards are similar.

The AZ amex gives double or triple EQM's (depending on which card) on euro spent on AZ flights.

credit card - starwood amex
charge cards - amex and diners club

i recommend getting one or multiple

I know that UA and AA both have prepaid travel cards that you can buy and automatically earn status, depending on how much you buy. So if you know you're going to spend $20000 on *A airlines over the next year, why not get the 1K status right away?

The last couple of years, United has offered a pre-paid travel card that grants you status. It's $5000 for Premier (2P), $10,000 for Premier Executive (1P), and $20,000 for 1K.

https://secure.unitedmileageplus.com/MP0603TH.jsp

The United Chase Platinum card allows you to get the following in the first year: 25K RDM, 5K EQM (both on sign-up), then an additional 5K EQM for purchases on ual.com for travel (mathced 1 to 1), and 5K EQM for 35K spent on the card in a calendar year.

Thus, if you got the card in January, you could earn 15K EQM on the Plat card, which is 10K EQM short of Premier status, UAs lowest elite level. The card costs $140 per year.

I must be confused on something.

I was looking at the Citibank Business card which says it allows you to get up to 150,000 miles per year. I understood that to be 1 mile for each dollar you spend, right? So if I am doing $150,000 in purchases and then some on the card, then I would get 150,000 miles.

I also was looking at AA's website (the plan I prefer) and they mention that you must fly 4 qualifying segments per year - no problem because I probably average 20 segments a year. But those 20 segments are in the USA and probably total 20,000 miles total. If I could get 150,000 miles from Citibank using their business card, I could get 170,000 miles - putting me in executive platinum.

Or if not, what am I missing?

I read somewhere that Citibank gives 2:1 ($2 for each mile) points on debit card purchases, or 1:1 if you "upgrade" to a different kind of debit card. So I could move my petty cash account over to Citibank and give employees debit cards and (hopefully) I could reap the points. It would not be a ton but probably adds up to several thousand $$ a year.

Or is the only way to get exec platinum to actually fly 150,000 miles a year on the actual plane?

EDIT: I think I get it - you guys are saying that the miles generated from CC purchases are not "qualifying" miles that go towards your status, but rather miles that can only be "spent" on free tickets and the like, yes?

AA has an undocumented benefit whereby 1,000,000 miles FROM ANY SOURCE get you lifetime Gold status. With your purchasing pattern, you could do that in 5 years or even less. For example, the AA Citi Business MC gets you double miles for AA ticket purchases (2 miles per dollar). And the Starwood AMEX card lets you turn 20,000 points into 25,000 miles.

That is correct. They are two different sets of "miles".

I thought it was well-documented. Also, 2,000,000 miles will get you lifetime Platinum.

It may be well-documented on FT and other websites, but it's not officially documented on AA.

AA's prepaid travel card offer expired on August 31.

Mike

Yowza - this sounds promising! Is there a level where you get lifetime exec platinum? And if I had lifetime gold, do I only need to earn the difference between gold and platinum to get platinum, or do I need to earn the whole lot? I mean, gold is 25k miles, platinum is 50k miles. If I get lifetime gold, an I also get 25k qualifying miles, do I get platinum or do I need to earn 50k even though I am already gold?

If I concentrated on pushing most of our purchasing through awards CC's, I could probably get $500k a year, and wouldn't be too long to get platinum.

I used to work at a place years ago that required employees taking company-paid biz trips to give the miles to the company. Are miles transferred from others considered qualifying miles? Or does it include cases where I buy the ticket but it's in another persons name? I.e. company pays for Bob and Sarah to go to a show in Seattle but the points are retained by the company because during the booking it asked which FF account to use and I put my account in since I'm purchasing the tix? Or do the miles only go to the actual traveler as qualifying miles?

Thanks for the info - sorry if I seem green, but I *really* appreciate the benefits of these programs and it seems an easy way to make life easier without doing much different than we do right now.

amex starwood credit card would require $1.6MM spending to get lifetime plat on AA
or $2MM on diners club charge card

amex centurion also comes with DL, CO, US gold. $250K/yr spend on amex plat to qualify for it, $2500/yr annual fee.

1) There is no such thing as lifetime EXP, other than by meeting the annual requirements for EXP every year until you die.

2) Having lifetime Gold does not reduce or eliminate the requirement for 50k Q-miles/Q-points in a year for PLT (or 100k Q-miles/Q-points for EXP). It gives you the benefits, not a head start towards a higher level of qualification.

Mike

You seemed to be asking about airline status, but there are also hotel status you can get which may be of interest to you:

Starwood Gold (1st level in a 2 level program): $30K in a calendar year with a Starwood AmEx
Hilton Gold (2d level in a 3 level program): $20K in a calendar year with a Hilton HHonors AmEx

At least for the Hilton, qualifying via the credit card acts exactly the same as doing it through hotel stays during a calendar year. That defines when the status expires based on their program rules.