To answer your questions.
1. PLT challenge starts 1st or 16th of any month. You must call AAdv customer service to register
before flying. There's no other known way to register and you'll receive no confirmation of any kind that you are registered. You can register for the PLT challenge only if your current status is basic or Gold.
2. The challenge is apparently a one-time thing.
3. As soon as your challenge-completing flight is posted your status will be updated even though it may take a while before you get your new card. You'll receive the elite status bonus on this flight too.
One last note, if you start the challenge in the first half of the year, then the status you gain will last only until Feb2002 and you must use the rest of 2001 to requalify for PLT. This would be flight activity on top of the 10k Q-points you accrued to make the challenge. [Ignore this last sentence, see correction of error pointed out by Thumper below.]
Please also refer to my unofficial guide website (link below) for more details.
FewMiles..
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Unofficial Guide to AAdvantage:
http://home.webflyer.com/fewmiles/AA/
[This message has been edited by FewMiles (edited 01-25-2001).]