Gold and Platinum Challenges (there is no EXP Challenge) can be flown to gain a "short cut" to status; they can not be used to regain recently lost status. To earn status you must register (and pay a fee) and fly to earn 5,000 or 10,000 elite-qualifying Points (not miles) in a three month period, using American Airlines, American Eagle, the AmericanConnection® , British Airways, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qantas and their eligible codeshare flights.
See the Wiki information here, and the AA Points per Mile charts for the various far buckets on qualifying airlines here.
You earn based on the fare you paid, so upgrading won't help you on your challenge.
What you need is an upfare for your reservation (reissue in a higher fare bucket to earn more EQP), so a change fee does indeed apply if you've already ticketed the reservation.
Mods can you merge this with the AAdvantage Elite Status Challenge (Gold and Platinum) thread?
All of the tickets have already been ticketed. I guess then I would call in and ask to "upfare" my reservation into first? I was hoping to get the 1.5 per mile elite points.
Mods can you merge this with the AAdvantage Elite Status Challenge (Gold and Platinum) thread?
All of the tickets have already been ticketed. I guess then I would call in and ask to "upfare" my reservation into first? I was hoping to get the 1.5 per mile elite points.
Note that you don't have to "upfare" to F. There are some economy classes (Y and B, I believe) that also earn 1.5 points/mile. Sometimes these can actually cost more than F, but usually not.
And, yes, AA have a stupid policy where they charge the change fee even if people want to pay them more money as you do.
Programs: AA Lifetime PLT, HH Gold, DL/UA/CO/AS Elite
Posts: 14,412
Quote:
Originally Posted by NameError
Hi all,
I called AA to upgrade two of my reservations from economy tickets (most restrictive) to first class so that I can earn elite miles once I actually fly.
However, she said that I would have to be upgraded to the fully refundable, changeable tickets which, for my MIA - LGA flight is over USD 1200.00 when I see discounted first class flights for around USD 580.00
Has anyone run into this before? I also had no idea that AA charges a change fee for upgrades
Also, will I still receive the 1.5 points per mile when I do decide to upgrade my economy tickets to first class?
Thanks in advance!
Why not just cancel the tickets, then use the credit, less the change fee, to buy the $580 tickets? That would be far less than paying an extra $1200 per ticket.
Signed on this morning for the plat challenge- still no confirmation emails? Is this normal or would need to call again to confirm? There was a 240 dollar charge on the card pretty much immediately(!) Apologies for this kiasu.(over eager) question!
look forward to getting this done over the weekend! Many Thanks all here !
