lifetime status on AA: westjet flights take you there ... eventually.

i preface this post with the fact that lifetime status doesn't really mean your lifetime. given the fact that programs can be devalued in at a moment's notice, the allure of lifetime status is not what it used to be. alliance members can change, benefits can be "enhanced", programs can fold, and airlines can disappear. what we think is great now shouldn't be counted upon in the future.

american airlines' lifetime status program used to be quite the unique gem out of all the programs with lifetime status. it used to be that 1,000,000 points earned in any fashion (i.e., buying flowers, credit card spending, flight miles) would earn you lifetime gold status (oneworld ruby, similar-ish to star alliance silver). 2,000,000 miles would get you lifetime platinum status (one world sapphire, similar-ish to star alliance gold).

other programs that offer lifetime status have much more stringent ways of earning. asiana airlines requires 500,000 status miles (any alliance partner airline) for lifetime diamond plus status, one million status miles for lifetime platinum status. both of these map onto star alliance gold status. united airlines was a bit more stringent, requiring one million butt-in-seat miles on united metal for lifetime premier gold (and higher lifetime levels for each additional million). air canada requires one million status miles on air canada metal for lifetime elite status. it's possible to buy air canada's million mile status by buying recurrent flight passes that earn 8,000-10,000 status miles a month.

in december 2011, american changed their rules to make it only butt-in-seat miles that counted towards lifetime status. you could no longer earn it by credit card spending alone, for instance. but what i didn't realize was that the wording was quite generous:

Starting on December 1, 2011, base miles earned by flying on American Airlines, American Eagle^® or the AmericanConnection^® carrier or any eligible AAdvantage program participating airline will count towards Million Miler status.

 unlike the other programs, these need not be status miles. so it all made sense when i saw that my westjet points were crediting towards lifetime status miles on american despite not counting towards yearly status requirements. american has a lot of airline partners beyond their alliance.

so for those who are flying a combination of american airline partners on a frequent basis, westjet is not a complete loss in terms of status.