An additional thought based on my original post here. If your flight making you Elite was handled by a STAR partner, or on their metal, and not AC, it could take up to two weeks to process. This is what occured when my cameraman achieved Elite on his trip on AC back from HKG a month ago. Because the check-in was handled by UA, the computer did record the miles, but AC Aeroplan said they had to wait to audit the actual ticket to ensure the travel took place [or something like that]. So if you were travelling from the other side of the Atlantic where AC does not service its own flights, this may be the reason for the delay. If you do not see the change on the website or on the telephone system show up before you depart, print out a copy of your web statement page. It will show the mileage being greater than 35K, but may still show you as a Basic member. The MLL agent should let you in based on this. It is unlikely to print out on your boarding pass that you are Elite before this fact gets posted, so your boarding pass may not be of much use.