Why? It is in-line with a status challenge. You have ⅓ of a year to earn ~¼ of the miles for each tier. MVPG75K would be 26.67%. The differentiation is that those must be BIS miles only.

This is looking just how I thought it might go as AS is already set-up to accommodate status challenges. This time, however, you are challenging to AS status and retain you AS status through the challenge.

BIS miles does make it more challenging. However, a MVPG75 who earned that status in 2019 for 2020 & never flew in 2020 or 2021 still has 75K status until April 30th, 2022 and could retain it through the end of 2022 on 4 trancon or Hawaii returns.

While AS has not said partner EQM (which is not always BIS) count toward the challenge, they also have not said it does. Logically, with the absence of any AS requirements noted in the "challenge" one could argue that they are AS BIS miles only since you can't meet the challenge with fewer than 2 segments for MVP, 4 segments for MVPG or 6 segments for MVPG75K. In that regard, there is no need to mention the requirements as it is inherent in the challenge.

The added complexity is that any flights flown through April 30th, 2022 will count towards the challenge and count towards 2023 status. If you fly 2,500 miles in discount F in January, you would earn 2,500 BIS miles towards the challenge and 3,750 EQM towards 2023 Elite Status on the same flight.

James