(finally pro-tip, most airlines distinguish between miles claimable for status, and miles spendable on flights/services). There are people on Flyertalk who chu

(finally pro-tip, most airlines distinguish between miles claimable for status, and miles spendable on flights/services). There are people on Flyertalk who churn through those Citi AA Mastercards like crazy, collecting hundreds of thousands of miles from each card's signup bonus (usually 25-75,000 miles depending on the promo used to open the account). While AA can distinguish between qualifying flight miles for status, when it comes to redeemable miles they distinguish between flight miles and other earned miles from charge cards/etc. Since you can earn lifetime status on AA by collecting 1MM or 2MM redeemable miles, you can conceivably get status for life this way.