i have mixed thought's re this. if all other a/l's match, it's dumb, except for aa being first. if they don't match or do something similar, they're dumb. but it is possible that it will influence some who did challenges to try hard to qualify next year, which is the point. for wife & me, we have ~ 16k mi booked this yr which puts me @ 110k & her @ 44+k. we have bought tickets for a mileage run to get her to plat again. now we are discussing whether she should scrap the run & count on the status being extended or do it for the 11k+mi's. does anyone think that something extra will be done for real qualifiers? mho is that they won't.