Ok folks, long time lurker of FT here, trying to actually execute a Platinum Challenge. I'm currently AA-Gold, and I've never attempted any challenges before. I live in NYC and I have 5 weddings to attend in California this year so I figured it was as good a time as any to try to do a platinum challenge.
I was hoping I could post my numbers here and my assumptions, and people could tell me if I was way off? So originally (before deciding to try the challenge), I was going to just book all my flights the cheapest possible online, which would be class code "N". I've already booked the first flight, which will be from 7/13-7/21 (I have left the 7/13 flight off the list because it will be before the dates I am using for the challenge).
It's my understanding that I have to begin a challenge on a 1st or a 16th, and so I will be starting mine on 7/16 and ending on 10/15.
The flights I was planning to book are as follows (the one in italics has already been booked). I got the miles from the AA timetable.
Code:
Date From To Miles EQP/Mile EQP
7/21/2010 SFO JFK 2583 0.5 1291.5
8/19/2010 JFK LAX 2472 0.5 1236
8/22/2010 LAX JFK 2472 0.5 1236
9/15/2010 JFK SFO 2583 0.5 1291.5
9/19/2010 SFO JFK 2583 0.5 1291.5
10/8/2010 JFK SAN 2443 0.5 1221.5
However that will only net me 7568 EQP. I could either add a roundtrip flight to california somewhere else in this time, or I could upgrade my roundtrip from JFK->LAX to a 1.0 EQP fare (using
the helpful instructions I found on FT). By upfaring that one roundtrip, that puts my total EQP at 10040.
Given the really tight constraints here, I wanted to make sure I wasn't messing up anything and I was hoping someone could examine my assumptions.
1) The platinum challenge will cost $240 to enter.
2) There will be a cost associated with upfaring my JFK->LAX round trip. Around how much would I expect to upgrade a N class to a L or W fare?
3) As I am starting the challenge after June 16th, 2010, I will have platinum status through February 2012.
When I book the platinum challenge with the AA-gold helpdesk, will they be able to confirm right then that my travel plans will qualify, or will I be in limbo?
The last thing I wanted to check was:
4) I heard a while back that if you pre-book all your travel for the challenge, you can actually travel with platinum status for the flights during that period. Is that true?
Anyway, thanks again for this amazing resource and community at FlyerTalk. I don't know how anyone would ever figure out these crazy rules without it.
UPDATE: Also, I just saw this deal on the AA website for triple EQM on LGA->ORD flights, and I was actually planning on going to visit chicago anyway, but I hadn't included it in my calculations because the 732 miles per leg didn't seem like they'd be enough to offset the miles I needed, but at triple points, if I booked that, and upfared just that trip (which would be cheaper than upfaring the trip to california, right?), I could also do that... Man this is making my head hurt.