Just a follow up --

I called, and it turned out that they had me signed up for the platinum challenge. Everything got sorted out and they gave me Gold (which is the level for which I expect to qualify this year anyway) and cancelled the mistaken in-progress plat challenge. Just waiting now to see if the 25% bonus miles post overnight.

Of course, now I'm having buyers remorse and wondering if I should have said "that mistake is okay with me" and used the remaining two months to pick of the remaining 2300 points (of which 1000 was already booked)... but I'm not likely to travel much since I'll be spending the time graduating and such.

Besides, is having a taste of platinum benefits and then losing it good for me, or will it send me on a life long quest for status, which I can't afford just yet.

Anyway, thanks to everyone at FT who contributed to the sticky and threads about challenges - otherwise, I wouldn't have hit gold untill quite a bit later.