A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Minneapolis: DL DM charter 2.3MM
Programs: A3*Gold, SPG Plat, HyattDiamond, MarriottPP, LHW exAccess, ICI, Raffles Amb, NW PE MM, TWA Gold MM
Posts: 100,417
Assuming that either way, successful completion results in Plat status through February 2014, if you do in during 2013, all of those stays/nights will also help you to earn status during calendar 2013, to be effective through February 2015. So doing the challenge in 2013 essentially lets you count those nights/stays twice. That sounds good to me unless you have lots of SPG nights/stays coming up between now and the end of the year.