Originally Posted by sdsearch

There have definitely been people denied for not being preferred. So unless you have a high tolerance for risk, I would suggest using only the public offer, not the preferred member only offer.

Meanwhile, 6 months from December is June, and the ability to apply for the card is going to disappear by (maybe before?) the US and AA programs are merged, which currently forecast for sometime in the second quarter (ie April through June) of 2015. So I wouldn't count on anyone being able to apply for the card by June 2015.

Meanwhile, there was a rumor posted somewhere here a few weeks ago that there may be a better offer sometime in December. So instead of December 1, you may want to wait a bit later into December to see if a better offer does appear. (If you have likely only one last chance to apply for this card, why waste that chance on December 1 for a 40k offer when there might be, for example, a 50k offer later in December?)