mahasamatman- thanks for the welcome, you pretty much answered my question. i was just wondering because on the continental website under the elite qualification requirements it says that certain fairs such as industry discount, Hotwire and priceline.com do not count toward Elite qualification or mileage accrual. usually when they say such as it is just an example and not limited to those sites. so how would i know i the site is an opaque booking site? how do i find out which programs last the 2 years?

la_traveler-yah that makes sense, im starting a world trip from hawaii to europe then to asia so i just wanted to see if i could rack up all the miles possible to get a higher status.