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November 2019: I was close, but I didn’t have enough flights to get to Executive Platinum status that year. The fastest way to rack up oodles of miles was a PE route on Cathay Pacific, so that’s what I did:

• November: ORD-HKG-JNB-HKG-ORD

First leg I was upgraded from PE to business. Quite nice! Then I refreshed at Cathay’s first class lounges. I still think fondly on those lounge visits. I don’t remember a thing about my flights to and from JNB: I couldn’t even say if I was upgraded. At JNB I stayed at the airport hotel. Then turned around and came home. I definitely was not upgraded on the last leg. As Chris put it, I lived in the sky for a few days!

May 2021: I hadn’t traveled much due to COVID (to be fair, no one had) and flights were dirt cheap. I decided to rack up miles on AA by booking super-cheap fares using AmEx Membership Reward points (taking advantage of my 35% rebate thanks to the AmEx Business Platinum card). I ended up flying:

• May 8-9: ORD-LAX-MIA-LAX-ORD
• May 11-13: ORD-LAX-MIA-LAX-ORD
• May 18-20: ORD-LAX-MIA-LAX-ORD
• May 24-26: ORD-LAX-MIA-LAX-ORD

Total spent was about 53K MR points on these four trips. Most of the LAX-MIA and MIA-LAX legs were on wide-body planes and AA seemed to be getting rid of amenity kits as well. Quite often I found myself upgraded with decent food, amenity kits, and a good nap! Not to mention all the lounges that I accessed: I had access to AA Admirals Clubs and AmEx Centurion Lounges, which were all quiet at this point due to low demand.

What did I gain? This was before AA switched to loyalty points and during the pandemic, so AA had reduced its status requirements for Executive Platinum to 80k Elite Qualifying Miles combined with $12k Elite Qualifying Dollars. I’ll be honest: I no longer remember how these were calculated. But by June of 2021, I had put together about $4000 EQD and 35K EQM thanks to these four trips. (Not to mention the miles I gained!) Later that year, AA provided more boosts and promos that allowed me to secure EP for 2022.

Unless I switch to Alaska, I think my mileage running days are behind me. AA Loyalty Points are pretty easy to get without flying, thanks to dining and shopping options. I’ve long had the AA Executive Citi Credit Card, which nets me an easy 20K LPs and this year I picked up the Aviator Silver card to get an additional 15K LPs pretty easily.

I do still engage in a bit of mattress running: last December, I needed a few more stays to make Titanium status at Marriott, which gives Silver status at United. So I booked some cheap nights (4 nights, less than 40k points total) at a suburban Chicago hotel. That has proved to be worth it: I’ve flown United 7 times this year and I’ve gotten E+ each time for free at check-in. And I’m always tempted to regain Hyatt Globalist status, either with a mattress run or credit card spend or a combo of both.