Originally Posted by
aionesu
That's incorrect -- OP never said the friend has Aeroplan miles, they're clearly talking about status miles. And their friend picked the 95K re-qual level. So if the friend has 96K by December 31st at midnight, he/she WILL attain SE status, given that 90K were on AC.
Even with the 95K lower requalification level, 90K + 18K is still over 100K - so the lower requalification level is not required.
I do not see how the OP can say 90K + 18K = 96K.