End-of-year mileage padding for LAS-CUN?
On December 29th I need to fly from Las Vegas to Cancun. At that point I will have 47,115 EQM, meaning I'll need 2,885 to requalify for PLT. AA has plenty of affordable flights through PHX and DFW, but they would leave me short of my goal. I looked at using short-hops to maximize the 500-mile minimum, but can't make it work--even LAS-LAX-PHX-CUN would produce 2,760 EQM (125 short), and LAS-LAX-DFW-CUN would be 2,763 (122 short). The routing that would work is LAS-ORD-CUN (2,958 EQM), but unfortunately American's routing rules seem to require that to be booked as two separate one-ways, making it very pricey.
Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there any chance of AA making a grace-type exception for a paltry few hundred EQM, or does the new boost/renew system eliminate that entirely? I was counting on an earlier Airberlin flight to get me over the hump, but I found out too late that apparently my fare class only entitled me to 25% EQM--is there any hope of an exception on that front? All thoughts appreciated.