<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by scirel:
I've never flown enough to qualify for a FF elite program. However, after contemplating this year's travel schedule, I may have enough for the lowest tier.
I've read about people doing all kinds of qualifying things for the next year. So if I earn enough miles, say, in the summertime of 2004, will I get status immediately or will I have to wait until 2005?</font>
Just so you know.
Some programs offer a quicker way of achiving status.
The following program details are based upon the assumption that you fly on cheap economy tickets.
AA offers a challenge to attain status. All you need to do is to fly 10,000 miles for Gold or 20,000 for Platinum. The catch? You have to do this within a 3 month period. But basically it comes down to one European trip, if the routing is creative to get Gold status.
If you fly on the more expensive/full fare coach or J or F fares you'll need a lot less miles. It could be as low as 7500 miles for Gold or 15,000 for Platinum.
AA does not have a challenge for the top tier - Executive Platinum.
Also, if you do the challenge in the first half of the year, your new status will only be good till the end of FEB of the following year, but if you do the challenge in the second part of the year, your new status will be good till the end of FEB of the year after next year.
Once you have status, you can't do the challenge to keep that one, but you could do one for the next level.