OK so called in (thanks for the tip guys!) and after the customer care lady went and talked to her supervisor she said they can, but that they only give one "bump up" per lifetime so I decided to save it. She also implied I could use this one lifetime "bump up" even if I am not on track to hit status, and she gave the specific example of being 500 miles away so I just said thanks but no.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I agree that BUR is more doable than LAX, right now. What I should have specified is that the miles I need to fly would be partner miles, not AS miles. Doing a quick day trip to SEA or PDX in F, would totally be on my radar, if that would work.
Did consider a flight to east coast on a partner but, not sure that can happen this year. Still considering purchasing the status and making sure partner and I are always on same PNR. Getting 2 U to open up will be the thing that makes this not so valuable. Although, The EQM’s for Gold would be sweet and another factor.
One question, would I be able to receive 50,000 mile bonus for Gold if I do the “buy up?”

Either I’m confused or maybe you are with reading your status tracker. You need to hit *either* 40k miles on AS or 50k miles on AS or partners to hit gold - not both. So if you’ve hit 40k AS, you don’t need to hit partner threshold. And if you’re 3k short of the 50k partner threshold, AS flights would also get you there.

The 50k bonus miles are a perk of hitting 75K status, not just basic Gold (75K requires flying 75K on AS or 90K on AS + partners). That perk is not available to those who take the buy-up offer, as I understand it.

the 50K partner threshold includes any AS miles; if you’re at 47k (with 36k on AS), 3k on either AS or partner would suffice

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pcoll (Post 31763991)

One question, would I be able to receive 50,000 mile bonus for Gold if I do the “buy up?”

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the 50k RDM (redeemable miles) bonus is for making 75K, not MVPG

(edit to add) I see be_rettSEA responded while I was composing my reply ;)

Thank you for clearing up my confusion. In my research, saw the mile bonus for AS Gold and missed the 75K part of the equation.
WE have always been MVP and had not thought we would fly more than that. This year, international flights resulted in the partner miles posted. Now , for the first time looking at possible Gold status.
I have 21,214 AS miles and 47,035 AS/PARTNER miles. So, to get to 50,000 for AS/Partner miles, would I need to fly partner metal or would the day trip BUR/SEA RT in F work as well? ( i know from experience SEA/LAX in F is about 3,600 miles with COS bonus.)

Either AS or partner miles count toward the 50k threshold. A BUR/SEA round trip in paid F (F/P/I fares) would get you there w/ the CoS bonus. A single round trip in upgraded F (or main cabin) would leave you short, but 2 round trips in main cabin would do it and may end up being cheaper than a single paid F round trip, if money's a bigger factor than time for you. If you can find a workable travel date at a reasonable fare, I'd say definitely worth it to get Gold benefits.

BUR-SEA base miles are 937 each way, and with the F bonus would be 1639 (probably rounding up to 1640) each way, to net you 3280 RT.

And as be_rettSEA points out, it's possible (if not likely) that flying two round trips will be less expensive than flying it in F. The F seats can be expensive.

ETA: looks like you can do it in F on Dec 7 for around $700. The price of two round trips in main the same day would be about the same (looks like you'd probably be on the same plane for all four flights, so no worry about missing flights), and it would be a little cheaper in BE.

Tue/Wed (10/11 Dec and 17/18 Dec) all four BUR-SEA flights are $329 each way in F ($109-$136 in coach), multiple LAX-SEA flights are available at $239 each way in F ($84-$119 in coach)

there is **absolutely** no guarantee that BUR-SEA will turn back to SEA-BUR, although the turn at BUR will likely use the same jet

I'm 4700 miles short of Gold and got the email last week. They wanted $799 or 80K miles. I laughed.

I might do an overnight PDX-east coast turn here to lock that up. Way less than what they want for that, even right after Thanksgiving.

Book a transcon that earns double miles.

didn’t the “double miles on select TCONs” promo require registration before ~6/1?

I thought registration was over too, but AS had a booth at EWR last night (next to gate A32) trying to get people to sign up for Mileage Plan, with double miles on transcons until the end of the year to sweeten the deal. Had never seen AS do anything like that before, but perhaps others have.

Nothing in the original offer about registering by June 1, though it does say you need to register before your first qualifying flight.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alas...ast-coast.html

I haven't seen a booth, but I've heard them announcing it and lining people to sign up at the gate before boarding a few times.

It doesn't work for flights out of PDX or SEA though - it's only for hubs in CA to the east coast.