Horace101

My girlfriend (not a business traveler) recently made GLD on BIS miles (NB: Kind of funny how excited she was to have status)

Because of some travel we had planned (RT JFK-GRU-GIG, RT LGA-DFW-PHX, and RT JFK-SJU-SLU-CIW) I signed her up for the Platinum Challenge as a surprise.

RT JFK-GRU-GIG was booked in QClass (.5 QP/Mile = 4,786 QPs).
RT LGA-DFW-PHX was booked in L/WClass (1.0 QP/Mile = 4,514 QPs).
RT JFK-SJU-SLU-CIW was booked in W/VClass (1.0 QP/Mile ~ 4,287 QPs).

I figured she'd make the 10,000 QPs she needed somewhere on the way from JFK to SJU during the third trip.

She called this am...very excited...to say that she had mysteriously made PLT. I told her about the PLT Challenge I signed her up for...that keeps me out of the dog house, atleast through Feb 07. But I couldn't figure out how she made it based on the first two trips alone.

On the LGA-DFW-PHX leg of Trip #2 we upgraded to X using my stickers. When the miles posted she got 1 QP/mile as expected.

On the return PHX-DFW-LGA leg we upgraded to C using her miles. When these miles posted she got 1.5 QP/mile..definitely not what I expected. This extra .5 QPs on the PHX-DFW-LGA leg of the trip put her over the 10,000 QP mark.

I realize that you get 1.50 QPs for buying F, J, or Y. But I did not realize that you got 1.50 QPs if you upgrade to C inventory using a mileage award upgrade.

Am I interpreting the data wrong?

Long story short (too late, I know)...for those contemplating a GLD or PLT Challenge, but don't think you'll have enough QPs to qualify, I think if you upgrade to C using a mileage award you'll get the extra .5 QPs/mile. This may mean the difference between making it and coming up short.

Good luck to all...and thanks for all the information on this board...my girfriend thinks I'm a Superhero. Please don't let her know that I'm not...

Happy New Year

Horace

nako

It's not supposed to happen this way, but on occasion, it does. Several threads in the past year or so have discussed people getting extra Q-points in situations such as this.

(This thread from January is a good example.)

This does not mean, though, that a person should intentionally book miles or sticker upgrades in lieu of extra Q-points, if only because of the fact that the Q-points are supposed to post based on the fare class purchased.

Translated - you didn't necessarily stumble upon a quicker and easier way towards a GLD or PLT challenge, so much as your girlfriend got really, really lucky.

Mike

andrzej

Great story and congratulations to your girlfriend on making PLAT,

BUT please refrain from giving wrong advice based on one incident. She got lucky, and it does happen on occasion, but NEVER EVER count on getting 1.5QPs on a mileage/e-VIP upgrade. 99.9% of the time, it doesn't happen.

JDiver

I've had one or two flights where I got 1.5 EQP I should not have received, but it is definitely a fluke and should never be counted on in any way. And I should point out a YUP flight I was given 1.0 EQP an took a couple of calls to fix (the first AAgent said "what do you expect? It's a COACH flight," ignoring the fact B and Y earn - 1.5 EQP.)

Sometimes we get lucky, sometimes we lose and have to recover what we lost. Your GF earned some more bonus miles on the last flight because she made Platinum a bit ahead of time; the error isn't likely to repeat itself any time soon.

sonof1K

another way to bump up your earning on a ticket is to stand by for an earlier flight. most times in my experience, the GA just puts you in Y inventory because its easier for them than making sure that you're in your original booking class.

Horace101

We'll then it's just as well I said things like "I think" and "Am I interpreting the data wrong." I don't recall giving anyone a guarantee that this would work. Please refrain from jumping all over someone who's relating their past experience in the hopes that someone might benefit from it.

Let's say someone's not going to fly 10,000 QMiles during a 90 day period, but they do have 6,700 miles worth of trips planned (For the record that's r/t JFK-GIG). What's the harm in using an award to upgrade to C? If you get 1.5 QP's because of the upgrade...then wahoo...you made PLT via the Challenge when you didn't think you would. If you don't get the 1.5QPs and come up short...then the worst thing that happened is you had to ride up front on a trip that you had planned anyway.

I didn't suggest that someone do a MR and upgrade to C just to make PLT. I simply said that if someone had travel planned...but would be 1/3 short on the QPs, that I THINK they can upgrade to C and get 1.5QP/mile.

Nothing ventured...nothing gained.

Horace

andrzej

I think if you upgrade to C using a mileage award you'll get the extra .5 QPs/mile

Horace101

Prefaced with I THINK

That's why I asked the board if I was looking at this wrong...

Horace

andrzej

then I'll say it again.... you are!

nako

And the answers you got indicated that you were looking at it wrong. There is no guarantee that a miles upgrade will get you the extra Q-points. None.

Mike

Flyer23

AA misposts points on a regular basis. At the beginning of this year, I started using McFlyPHL's spreadsheet to track my travel. The spreadsheet correctly calculates points based on the fare class and miles flown. All went well for a few months; my miles and points in the spreadsheet tracked perfectly with what as shown on AA.com.

Then, around March or April, I entered four recent flights into the spreadsheet. To my surprise, the spreadsheet miles still matched the AA.com miles, but the spreadsheet points total was about 200 points lower than what AA.com showed. Since there was only a limited number of flights that could have posted incorrectly, I went back and jiggled the fare classes on all of them in the spreadsheet, but I could never get the spreadsheet and AA.com to match.

Since AA.com was actually giving me more points than I deserved, and I knew I'd requalify on miles anyway, I just ignored the issue. I kept using the spreadsheet and making sure that my miles added up properly, but didn't worry about the points.

Now, at the end of the year, the spreadsheet and AA.com still agree on the number of miles I earned. But AA.com is giving me about 5,000 more points than I deserve -- about 101,000, compared to 96,000 in the spreadsheet. That's an error of over 5%, which I'd consider pretty significant.

As sonof1K pointed out, there are some situations where you will consistently get more points than expected. Basically, anytime you get placed on a different flight at the airport -- due to misconnect, vol/invol bump, or standby -- you will get booked into full-fare Y and earn 1.5 pts/mile. This happened to me a few times over the course of the year, and I always entered the actual fare class flown (i.e. Y), rather than the one booked. So the 5,000-point difference is in addition to the "known" situations where I earned more points than I deserved.

I find it interesting that AA.com says I earned EXP on points, when really, I was probably in the low-90,000's. Not that it matters for me (I qualified legitimately on both miles and segments), but I wonder if there is anyone out there who does reach a level higher than they should, based on that little bump.

At any rate, even though AA does consistently screw up, I wouldn't count on it in my qualification schemes (either the hard way or by challenge). It's nice if you get to a level a little earlier than you should've, but you won't know until after you fly and everything posts. If you're counting on a 5% screw-up by AA to put you over the top, it's probably better to just book the extra 5% outright