The price differential isn't quite what you think.
Making PLT through the challenge in 10K miles doesn't cost double what is costs to make in in 20K miles, so you may spend more doing it with "cheaper" fares.
DW and kids did a successful PLT challenge on a TATL for a fare of $830. The cheapest available fare at the time was $720. So a successful PLT challenge done on a TATL would have cost $1420.
Plus, in a sense you are paying more in RDMs earned by doing it on 20K miles.
On a PLT challenge you start a 100% mile bonus on your qualifying seg. Not a big deal if you fly shorter segs, but in DWs case she earned a 5.3K mile bonus on her qualifying seg. And double miles on her next TATL, two months later.
Originally Posted by
EpiFlyer
If you think you could fly 10 or 20k miles in three months an AA challenge might be right for you. (AA actually says 5k or 10k qualifying points, but if you, like me, are flying the cheapest fairs it works out to being twice that many miles.)