Originally Posted by
ijgordon
I also edited one of the subsequent bullets that AA will give you provisional Gold status if you have qualifying flights booked already (presumably they'd need to be nonrefundable; in my case they are), as the agent gladly did that last night. Only real benefits for me is the 25% bonus miles on the first few flights and a head start on earning 500-mile upgrades from the start (so I'll complete the challenge and have 4 stickers). I'm already in F/J and/or traveling with a Plat companion on all my flights.
YMMV on provisional gold. I did not get it despite having UA Gold status (50k EQMs), having plenty of travel booked and 20 EQSs this year already. It's fine, I'll hit gold on segments before I finish my challenge anyway, but it would have been nice to get the bonus miles and get ahead on sticker earning.