Lifetime status?
 

I currently hold silver elite on CO but will loose that this year as no travel (well, very little) However, beginning next April I will be travelling a large amount over the following 12 months.
My questions is: What airline should I go with to try and achive a lifetime satus for this big milage haul?

By the way, I am based out of AUS and fly often to Europe. Would consider foreign carrier if so advised.
Thanks!

You could consider AA.

AA has the biggest presence at AUS and AA's oneworld alliance has some of the best international carriers around.

AA is probably the easiest to reach lifetime status, as all the miles count toward the status(brokerage accounts, credit cards, hotels, flowers, IDine, etc...etc...)not as some other airlines that only count actual flying miles. So whoever you choose, make sure that all the miles count. It's not easy to reach 1M(lifetime Gold) or 2M(lifetime Platinum) just by flying. Flying to Europe will give you about 5K miles each way, so even if you flew 2 times a month, you would only get about 20K per month. Ofcourse there is status bonus once you reach that, but at best with the above scenario you would still only get 40K. So, you could see how having all the other options helps you to reach your goal.
Good Luck!

I had thought AA would be best.
Isn't there a "challenge" asociated with them?

A search on the AA forum will yield over a 100 threads on the Challenge topic. Happy reading.. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Are you sure about this? I thought only flight miles (and class-of-service bonuses) counted toward status.

ES

Oops, my bad. I forgot we were talking about Lifetime/Million Mile status, not regular elite status. Please disregard.

ES

Yes, there is. My wife, also based out of AUS, just got her Platinum via the challenge by doing domestic runs.

Delted because I cannot read!!!

[This message has been edited by DSK (edited 05-29-2003).]

Sorry to throw cold water on this, but you're aiming a bit high if you expect lifetime status with anyone after 12 months' flying. Even with AA, which counts all miles from all sources, that's probably at least 400,000 butt-in-seat miles to reach a million total. While I'm sure a few people have flown more than this in one year, it's pretty rare. With other airlines, you'd need the whole million as BIS, which is well-nigh impossible.

So, I think your practical choices are AA and perhaps CO, depending on how big a head start your previous flying with them gives you. Just don't expect to finish in 12 months.

CO hasn't offered lifetime elite status since 1993.

Sorry; I stand well and truly corrected. I have no experience with them and assumed they followed the general pattern rather than checking the facts before I posted. So I have just learned two things!