Originally Posted by
Brocktoon
This is odd, because I seemed to have somehow earned instant rec last week to Prestige, two days after I hit 27,000 (on web and boarding pass). This week I'm over 35,000 but under top tier on the web I'm still showing as Prestige, but now I qualify as Elite.
Hope I'm not somehow stuck at Prestige. I did not select any benefits.
You didn't earn instant Prestige last week you just happened to have earned it right before the sweep notifying everyone of their status for next year.
If I were you I would select Prestige benefits but only choose physical things (no bonus miles or anything like that). If you are lucky then they will send you a Prestige package and then you should be able to choose your Elite benefits as well.
Back to the OP - you should probably be good for your certs in February. Grab the upgrade as soon as you can even if you don't have the certs yet. You will most likely end up with them but if you don't the only harm done would be that you could end up with bad seats in the back.