rspading

Thanks in advance all..... it's been a long time since I have been into flying and FlyerTalk and I feel like I'm starting over. I have enjoyed searching through the boards again for tidbits regarding our upcoming flight.

A couple of years a go I was Platinum level and flew quite a lot over a couple of years, accumulating around 300K miles. Since 2003 I haven't flown more than once a year and have lost my status. I even have four upgrades sitting in my account I can't use without my status.

Anyway, the wife and I have decided to fly to Switzerland (from CID)in late April to visit her aging family. I want to maximize my rewards/miles for the trip..... maybe regain some status, etc..... Any suggestions on routing for maximizing miles and working towards status would be greatly appreciated. We're not overly picky on where to fly into. I guess Geneva is best and maybe Zurich is second best. I don't even hardly know where to start any longer. Should I consider a Platinum Challenge for this flight? Any other ideas?

JDiver

First, welcome back. We shall prepare the fatted, uh, turkey wrap as served on AA to celebrate your return.

You have a number of choices, it seems to me:

Use AA to fly into ZRH, or use AA and a partner onward to fly into GVA, via LHR (ugh!) LGW, ZRH, BRU (even MAN, but there's one eligible flight MAN-GVA.) Your US connections would generally be ORD or DFW, possibly more if you want to make this a mileage run.

The issue on the Challenge is you must earn 10,000 Elite-Qualifying Points in 90 days (and if you earn them the first half of the year, your status will drop to Gold Feb 28, 2007; complete June 16 or after, iirc (see the sticky at the head of the Forum page,) your Platinum lasts through Feb 28, 2008.) So, you will have to be sure to select / request a fare class that earns one point per qualifying mile. These are often not significantly more than fares that earn a half-point per mile, so you should be able to earn the Platnim Challenge on this trip.

Downloading the current PDF schedule from aa.com might help as well.

gemac

In addition to the Platinum Challenge, there is a Gold challenge, which should be pretty easy on deep discount fares with a little creative routing.

Gold status opens up the possibility of using those orphaned stickers. You can also use them without status on full-fare, unrestricted coach, if you ever fly that fare.

skywalkerLAX

When jumping on the gold challenge you usually dont need to fly excessively! Even the cheap fares (no "O") bring you 50% EQP's for the challenge on which the 5000 points should be in reach ! Enroll your wife, too !

You can even fly to FRA/LHR and from there with SWISS (just recognize the soon ending partnership with AA) to any destination in CH !

Enjoy the swiss spring

Cheers :-:

rspading

Thanks for the ideas. I thought I would enroll both the wife and myself in the challenges prior to the trip. Actually I was thinking of trying to do a challenge with some creative mileage run type booking prior to the Swiss trip to see if I can get status BEFORE the trans-Atlantic. Trouble with that is getting out of CID with a reasonable fare to take advantage of the MR. I saw the end of the Swissair relationship and that's why I think we'll stick with AA from DFW to ZRH.

sonora

[QUOTE=JDiver]First, welcome back. We shall prepare the fatted, uh, turkey wrap as served on AA to celebrate your return.

QUOTE]

Oh my that's hilarious!

SFGal

Travelocity's dream maps were showing some pretty good fares to ZRH on BA. They are Q fares -- you only would get .5 eqp and .25 eqm. though