Nerfgirl

Thanks for the help. I was trying the booking classes one by one in ITA; this will speed things along. Unfortunatly, the dates are non-negotiable. My travel buddy is starting grad school in September.

aktchi

The O-class fare on your dates about 1100, V class 1700. Thus one possibility would be to do the cheaper fare now and another trip somewhere in Sep-Oct when fares are cheaper.

zsurf

Just called today about challenge commencing 7/1. They are not yet offering - said to call back mid June. For those of you who got GLD immediately, were you elites on other carriers? If I am not able to get GLD right off the bat, I am thinking it makes sense to pay $140 for GLD challenge, then upgrade for $125 to PLT challenge midway in order to get the second 5,000 miles to count toward sticker upgrades. Anyone done it this way?

The way I'm set up, according to GCM I'm going to make it by 26 miles

JFK-FLL-DFW-SAN -- 3359 mi
SAN-JFK -- 2446 mi
LGA-ORD -- 733 mi
ORD-LAX -- 1744 mi
LAX-ORD -- 1744 mi

Total: 10,026 mi, all upfared to V.

BrewerSEA

If AA won't upgrade you to GLD at the beginning of your PLT challenge (and if you call enough times they probably would) they will certainly upgrade you to GLD once you've reached 5000 EQP on a PLT challenge, though this too may require more than one call. Save the challenge upgrade fee and simply call once you hit 5k.

SFOSpiff

Sorry if I missed an answer among the other 1,495 posts, but I don't want to miss a good fare looking for an answer.

I'm waiting to hear back from AA on an elite match, but in the meantime, should I book the flight? Do I have to be matched before I book, or just before I fly?

Thanks.

mreed911

You don't have to be elite status to fly on AA, just willing to purchase a ticket.

SFOSpiff

Sorry, I guess my question wasn't clear. If I do a status match, which requires flying X number of miles in Y months, then I want this flight to count towards that. Do I have to have the status match enabled and active before I book the flight, or just before I fly?

zsurf

Before you fly. Believe the challenge can also be applied retroactively to an extent.

zsurf

Good idea... Hope this works even though I have no active status on other airlines...

Maui Time

It worked for me. I had virtually no travel miles on a regular basis until I applied for a PLT challange. After I passed 5k miles I called and requested GLD status and was given it.

rwoman

Good morning,

Timeline for my PLAT Challenge:

Late APR 2011: Signed up for Plat Challenge/Comp'ed to Gold
28-30 May: LHR-LAX-LHR (AA/BA) pushed me over the 10k EQP needed
31 May: Plat status showed up after midnight Central Time.

^ to AA for the quick update!

robin

RNC

Hi everyone first post here. I have a question for everyone. I wanted to go for the platinum challenge and wanted everyone feedback.

I was going to call tomorrow for the challenge. I flew from DFW to Miami last Wed. this week I will fly DFW to Boston, July will be DFW to Boston, DFW to Chicago, DFW to Toronto. August will have DFW to Boston.

I could also mix in a Atlanta, North Carolina, and South Dakota trip between now and end of August. What is the best way to go about this and please give me all the tips I need as this is a new experience.

Gamecock

Welcome to FT!

The best tip is to read the sticky and and Wiki post on the top of this thread. Read it and then ask questions based on what you have read. Many of the folks here have put a lot of work into those resources.

Here are my tips:
1. Make sure you understand EQMs vs. EQPs, that is critical.
2. Look and see if you can fly convuluted routings. That will help get your EQPs up. For example why fly DFW-BOS if you can fly DFW-ORD-BOS and get more EQPs.



Have you already signed up for a challenge or are you thinking about it? Do know that if you start a challange before 16 June your status will expire on 28 Feb 12. If you can hold off until 16 June your statuis will be good thru Feb 2013.

folex386

Um... you can get them to retroactively start you on the challenge for Mid May, however that means you need to be done by mid august (hopefully your DFW-BOS is in the early part of august).

Anyway if you do this you currently have (assuming deep discount economy 0.5p/mi)
DFW-MIA-DFW: 1121 EQP
DFW-BOS-DFW: 1562 EQP
DFW-ORD-DFW: 802 EQP
DFW-YYZ-DFW: 1199 EQP

For a grand total of 7806 EQP, leaving you with 2194 EQP. In this case, you'd need to do 2x DFW-RDU (1062 EQM RT) or all of your proposed trips. Or you could purchase one of those in the higher fare bucket to earn you 1.0 EQP/mi.

Good luck!

Sometimes when you get re-booked you can get rebooked into a higher fare bucket and they *might* give you the higher EQP/mi, it's happened.

RNC

I havent signed up yet but was going to this week before my Boston flight. Should I wait? Will they count my past flights if I wait?