US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Seeking CP challenge advice and info

I will make GP next week on miles, with no double bonuses or anything like that. Had I started reading this site earlier, I probably would have made it a long time ago.

Anyhow, I expect my travel to increase next year, with mileage of 80K or so assuming no bonuses or milage runs. My travel schedule is especially heavy in the early months of the year. It appears from reading the many posts on the subject that in some cases people receive challenges out of the blue and in other cases they get them when they ask for them.

If I ask them for a challenge, how likely are they to issue it and how will they decide what dates to use? Ideally, I'd like to get a challenge for Jan-Mar, when I will probably log 26k tier miles on US Metal without making any extra effort. Also, who do I ask? Is it better to send a letter, an email or make a call?

Call but I wouldn't count on it. Challenges for CP are very rare.

While nothing is etched in stone and U is often inconsistent.

Normally challenges early in the calendar year are for those that just missed requalifying for a level to allow them to get back to that level.

Later in the year they tend to offer challenges to get to the next level.

But heck it's worth a phone call - or 2. Can't hurt

I asked for the CP challenge after I had well exceeded GP qualification for next year. This is the best time to do it. For example, when you have 80k miles, you are much closer to a CP in travel habits than a GP. They realize this, and also realize many other airlines (like NW/CO) set their highest tier at 75k.

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dsingerUNC
US1

Mike,

The person you may need to contact is Carol Blazer in DM. Carole's fax number is 336-661-8448. Send the fax to her attention and
reference a request for a "Chairman's Prefered Exception". Of course this only works if you write a letter and fax it. My guess you are better off making a phone call to set up a challenge. As far as I know, Carol handles comps from other programs.

Good luck!!! There is a world of difference between GP and CP and most of the difference is they way US treats you in dealing with the little things. And of course the CP desk which is the best in the industry!

I'm a loyal USAir guy (perhaps to the bitter end) because of great experiences with friends who worked there in the Piedmont days and good customer service to this day. Plus, in RIC its really down to US or DL and I'm done with DL. I'm certainly convinced CP would be a nice perk. I thought the write-ups on the challenges made it seem a bit too easy and I assumed I must be missing something. I guess the worst they can do is tell me no. Thanks to all for the advice and info.

Am currently in the midst of a CP Challenge.

Got comped to Gold and was offered CP if I fly 20 segments or 20,000 miles in a 3 month period.

I should complete it by the end of the year. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Spiff:
[B]Am currently in the midst of a CP Challenge.

Got comped to Gold and was offered CP if I fly 20 segments or 20,000 miles in a 3 month period.

B]</font>

I'm going to end the year with about 90,000 and I sent a letter as a longtime GP asking for a challenge of some sort. I received a nice phone call letting me know that they would give me a challenge in early '04 and details would be shared in the coming months once they decide on the terms.
Spiff, for your challenge, do you need to fly on US metal only? I'll be making an Asia trip in the 1Q 2004 and could take care of those 20K (or whatever challenge I get) miles pretty quickly on a codeshare with a US flight number.

During my pre-post research phase I found a number of people who said that you had to accumulate the miles on US Metal, and that no bonus miles counted. For an example, see this thread (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum51/HTML/005972.html).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dcjono:

Spiff, for your challenge, do you need to fly on US metal only? I'll be making an Asia trip in the 1Q 2004 and could take care of those 20K (or whatever challenge I get) miles pretty quickly on a codeshare with a US flight number.</font>

Yes, I called and was told that only US metal with US flight numbers would count towards the challenge. Glad I called, because usair.com was really pushing the UA codeshares when I was choosing my flights.