Afreet

Since I've started the Platinum Challenge, I've been flying from AUS to SFO on a pretty regular basis, and have been racking up the points without too much problem. (I think I'll hit my 10,000 points on the way back home this weekend!)

I've noticed, though, that most of my tickets are G class, whereas a couple are V. I tend to book them all about the same amount of time ahead, and I always book them online, and I always search with 'Economy (with Restrictions)'. What do those class designations really mean? Obviously from the perspective of points, I'd rather have V-class tickets, since I get a full point per mile instead of .5 points per mile.

JDiver

Before you fully book, click on the "detailed fare rules" option and see what you are buying - if it's not what you want, you can select another pricing, if you sort by price. It's a bit cumbersome, but then you are selecting the fare class you want to maximize your Q-points earning for a successful Challenge.

You can see a chart of classes and what they earn here at aa.com. "G" is a deep discount fare, which will logically come up first if you are requesting coach with restrictions and sorting by price. The V might have come up if you weren't sorting, or if the C seats in inventory were sold.

stevemason

I'm new to this site and have a question. I'm an AAdvantage Gold Member that is flying from LAX to Berlin, Germany in March. Can you tell me how to try to get a free upgrade that will give me the greatest chances of being upgraded?

odelag

Upgrading to the next class of service will cost you $300 plus 25,000 AAdvantage miles each direction. Can't use credits to upgrade internationally except for US to Carbbean destinations and to Mexico.

NickW

Just seeking confirmation...

According to the Great Circle Mapper, LHR-JFK is 3,451 miles.

So, in D class (1.5x for business class), I should earn at least 5,176 Q-points for each sector on that route; ergo 10,352 Q-points for the round-trip.

That's enough to complete a Platinum challenge, right?

Gardyloo

Yes.

PrezVander

Do you receive 4 stickers upon completing the Platinum challenge, or do you have to fly 10,000 miles as an elite first? I thought I read somewhere that you receive 4 as a welcome gift, but haven't found anything while searching. Thanks!

chrisw

I didn't get any. Like you said you get them after the first 10k miles. However, the flight that completes the challenge counts towards the 10k upgrade counter, so if you arrange for a transcon or trans-ocean flight to complete your challenge, you'll be well on your way to your first set of stickers.

yosithezet

I'm currently on a Gold Challenge. I had a flight from Bangkok to Sydney which gave me over 4600 points and I will have one from Sydney to Melbourne to earn another 500. The rep at AA's customer service was polite and knowledgeable and she said that if I didn't make it, which I knew I would, that I could just sign up again. You have to start the challenge on the 1st of the month or 15th of the month but she was willing to back-start it at March 1 if I'd wanted to. I'm only getting 50% miles since I'm flying Qantas but it will give me the status Q-points.

The funny thing is that the flight is a BA flight that Qantas books through codeshare. Had I been booked with BA I would have only gotten 25% of the miles.

kcchica

I am sorry if this has been covered. But I just want make sure I understand this right... If I do a gold challenge right now and make it, I will will gold status through feb of next year? To maintain that status, I need to fly 25k miles this year right? Do my challenge miles count into that?

Also if I do plat. challenge and assuming I make it, if I don't actually fly enough to qualify for plat, will I automatically drop down to gold status for next year and get to keep it? Or do people get dropped down, because while they didn't meet the miles to maintain plat. challenge, they have flown enough to qualify for gold status still.

Also when people do a double challenge and are successful actually signing up for both in the same time period, do the 5k points, for hte gold also count towards the 10k for plat.

Thanks
kc

gmc

Sorry, you have to fly 10K miles as an elite first. Too bad! That would be nice.

gmc

Yes. A Gold challenge now will earn your status thru Feb of 2006. If you earn 25k miles, or 25K points, before 12/31/2005, you will keep status thru Feb 2007.

Here's how it works: A successful challenge, started today, will get you status thru Feb 06. After that, AA treats your status like it would for any other elite: If you earn enough miles/points/segments for an elite level during calendar year 05, that's your status for 06. If you do not, then you'll drop a level every year (Plat to Gold; Gold to nothing).

Yes they do. Absolutely. And they all count towards elite qual for the year, as well - it's not like your counter gets restarted when you complete a challenge.

Hope this helps.

anem1e

Hi everyone.

First of all, hats off to fewmiles for his EXCELLENT guide.

This is my first post because I wanted to let everyone know that I ended up enrolling in the Gold & Platinum challenges simultaneously (on accident).

I found fewmiles' guide in february and I started my gold challenge on march 1st. The very next day, after looking over my upcoming travel plans, I realized that I would be able to hit platinum. So I called AAdvantage customer service and I asked them if I could change my challenge to platinum. They told me I was able to do so, and they switched me to the platinum challenege starting march 1st.

I flew out to California (from chicago) twice in two weeks (1st and 2nd weekends of march). My last leg of the trip just updated on my aadvantage account a couple days ago (3/14). To my surprise, my status was GOLD! I started to freak out because I thought AA had made a mistake and had not switched me to the platinum challenge liked I had asked.

So I called the AAdvantage customer service to verify all my information. They told me that I was still on the platinum challenege. Then I pointed out what had happened on my account, that I was ugraded to GOLD status only after 5000 QP. The CSR said that this was very odd and that they don't allow anyone to enroll in two challenges at the same time. She said she didn't know what to do. She told me she would speak with her supervisor.

I turned out to be super lucky. The CSR told me that when I had called back to cancel by gold challenge and start my plat challenege, they couldn't cancel the gold challenge, so they just enrolled me in both. They said that for some reason, they could enroll flyers in the challenges, but couldn't un-enroll them.

I can't believe my luck. Now, I'll be flying gold status on the rest of my trips to complete my plat challenege. That is really awesome. I'm not sure if this is a bug in their system and if it would work constantly.

If anyone else is planning to go for the plat challenege, try calling and enrolling in the gold first. Then call back later (i called back the next day) and tell them u want to cancel your gold challenege and go directly for the plat challenege. If this works for someone else, I think we just found a way to enroll in both challeneges at the same time!

Thanks again to fewmiles!

aku

I signed up for the Platinum challenge on 2/16, figuring that with all of the travel on my latest project, I could make the challenge without threatening my UA 1K. One week later, the project was cancelled, and my only chance of making AA Plat is to pay for the Q-points myself. I still need 9000 Q-pts, and the best thing I could find for the money is SFO-JFK-LHR and back (L one way, S the other), which just clears 9k for about $675. I doubt that I'll be able to qualify for 2006 Plat, so here's the question: Do you AA elites think that it's worth $675 to be Platinum for 9-10 months, or should I just give up on the challenge?

SanDiego1K

Nope. I wouldn't recommend that you do it. You'll be spending money out of your pocket for status that you won't use. AA allows you to sign up for the challenge more than once. Do so again when you need to fly AA.