You might also check with the customer service desk of whichever airline this is; there have been several reports in Flyertalk that the American Airlines customer service desk will give AAdvantage Platinum status upon request to someone who is very close to AA's 50,000 mile requirement at or near the end of the year. (Their cutoff for doing this seems to be 49,500 miles.)

Other airlines may do something similar. If not, definitely find someplace cheap and fly there.

[This message has been edited by greggwiggins (edited 12-04-2001).]