A tip for those who are in Points Hell: most of the advice in the MR Deals and MR Discussion threads don't apply to you! Most people are qualifying annually for Gold, Platinum or Executive Platinum and very few of them are doing it on points. They're qualifying on miles or on segments, for the most part.

But you're in a Challenge, like me, and only points will help you. What to do?

Here's a few random suggestions:

- you can't do it without expertflyer and ita
- you can't do it without learning how to search with booking codes on ita
- you need to know the deep-discount fares AND the not-so-discounted fares for your trips

Observations:

If you live in the Northeast, Hawaii is a good place to go during your challenge. Go in V class at about a thousand bucks and you're 90% Platinum.

Domestic US flights (and US-Canada flights) are usually very expensive per point, if you buy a fare that gets you 1 point per mile. Don't try. Settle for the 0.5 and fly more. Don't take my word for it: check the fares and you'll see.

But Latin America is different. YYZ-GUA is one of my trips. The difference between a deep-discount fare (0.5 points per mile) and a less discounted fare (1 point per mile) is about 25%. On a YYZ-LAX fare the difference between the cheapest and the cheapest 1.0 fare is about 300%.

I think I have Expertflyer and ITA burned into my eyeballs.