You can earn lifetime oneworld sapphire elite status just from credit card spending. That’s mid-tier status like American Airlines AAdvantage Platinum or Alaska Airlines MVP Gold, and allows you to access American and Alaska lounges even when flying domestically on those airlines (and includes access to American’s Flagship business class lounges).
American Airlines Flagship Lounge DFW
American Airlines Flagship Lounge LAX
Japan Airlines updated their program a couple of years ago, and introduced lifetime elite status that can be earned from credit card spending. JAL has a U.S. credit card.
The JAL Premium Rewards card has an $85 fee, earns 2x on JAL purchases and 1x on everything else. You earn 5,000 bonus miles on your first JAL international flight after getting the card.
Crucially though you earn 5 Life Status points for every 1,500 miles earned from purchases on the card. (The cheaper $35 annual fee qualifies for this, too, but earns only 1 mile per $2 spent.)
So $450,000 in card spend with nothing else is enough for lifetime status which gets you oneworld sapphire. That comes not just with lounge access but with priority check-in and boarding and extra baggage allowance.
You can earn higher lifetime levels (1,500 → JGC Three Star → Four Star 3,000 → Five Star 6,000 → Six Star 12,000) but I think it’s six star before you’d reach oneworld emerald, so requiring $3.6 million card spend.
Compare to other status-earning opportunities via card spend. American AAdvantage is generally the best, and oneworld sapphire for a single year (AAdvantage Platinum) is earned at 75,000 Loyalty Points ($75,000 spend on U.S. cards, though some others are more generous). But that’s not lifetime and doesn’t come with lounge access on domestic itineraries.
$450,000 spend for lifetime status is worth considering for those who generate very high levels of card spend and are young enough where lifetime is a very long time. Bear in mind that permanent lifetime benefits can change (heh). Just ask United.
Miles Earn and Burn has written about the card, and Miles Per Day is going for lifetime status with it.
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