oklAAhoma

Before you get to far into this, you might want to take a refresher course on the difference between miles and points.

Hints: they are not the same thing; pax flying J will qualify by points, not miles; you've mentioned divisions for only two of the three ways to qualify for EXP.

wonderbret

sorry for my typo, i was reffering to points not miles. You could fly 190k miles and not qualify *on points*, which is why i was thinking of only the 2 out of 3 subdivisions.

wonderbret

I am starting to think along the lines of Kiwi Flyer when he mentioned the DONE not being the best route. Every iten. i make is taking forever because of connection times. Is anyone else having the same problems or are you guys having success with this?

Ajohn

Whoa, you'd have to pick flights unbelievably poorly (loads and loads of Q and O fares) not to qualify with 190,000 miles. But I think i see your point - that nobody in their right mind would choose to qualify by miles and therefore you naturally were assuming points.

skunker

Nope, you WOULD qualify once you fly 100k miles.

nako

As has been pointed out already, the bolded portion is absolutely false.

Mike

wonderbret

good lord i've been thinking of points and segments and routings and all that stuff WAY too much today. Im taking the afternoon off in hopes that i dont make any more moronic mistakes....and because my head hurts c-ya 2maro

i should add that its nice its 5pm...

oklAAhoma

Deleted.

pixpixpix

FlyerTalk Quickest to EXP in 2008 Contest

Challenge: To be the first person among the contestants to qualify for American Airlines AAdvantage Executive Platinum (EXP) status in 2008

Who can enter: Any member of FlyerTalk who is in good standing and remains in good standing for the duration of the competition. American Airlines employees are not eligible. There are no restrictions on age, nationality or country of residence

Elite qualification: The rules for EXP qualification will be those put forth by the AAdvantage program for the calendar year 2008. A contestant can qualify by miles, points or segments. To be recognized the contestant must actually be granted EXP status by AAdvatage as evidenced by their online statement. [issue: need to confirm with AA whether there will be any changes to the program].

Qualifying travel: A contestant may travel anywhere in the world, by any means, car, bus, boat or airplane, on any airline, at any time, but only flights on American Airlines and partners as per the AAdvantage rules will count towards qualification.

Qualifying point in time: The point in time at which a contest is considered to have qualified for EXP for the purpose of this contest, will be the official landing time (UTC) of the flight during which they surpass 100K miles or points, or their 100th flight if qualifying by segments. The landing time of the qualifying flight will be the determining time, regardless of when the miles actually post to the aa.com website
Errors in posting. Any errors in posting flights, such as double qualifying credit in case of weather reroutes, clerical or computer errors will not count. Standard original routing credit, however, may be credited, if granted by American Airlines.

Delays and reroutes. Contestants should expect that there will be missed or cancelled flights and they should plan alternate routes or strategies accordingly. Any legal tools may be used to reschedule or rebook flights.

Team entries. Multiple people may cooperate to support a contestant but the actual flights and elite qualification must be by a single individual.

FTEXP2008 Committee. A group of volunteers including FT members, moderators and Randy Petersen will be selected to oversee the contest, clarify issues with respect to rules, and resolve issues on interpreting the rules. They will also receive and report progress of the contestants. The Committee decisions will be final, though subject to appeal

Itineraries. Contestants must submit their initial planned itinerary to the FTEXP2008 Committee prior to departure. They may also at their discretion release it to the wider FT community.

Reporting. Contestants shall make every effort to report their flight-by-flight progress to the FTEXP2008 Committee. A website or thread or area of FT may be set up to record the real-time progress of contestants.

Connecting Times. Contests may choose any routing and connecting times that AA will ticket, but acknowledge that scheduling flights with less than the minimum suggested connection time may lead to missed flights. Contestant behavior when making flight connections must at all times be courteous.

Expenses. Contestants will be responsible for all expenses for all flights, flight and routing changes, food, and travel to and from their starting points and may pay by any valid means including vouchers. There will not be a maximum amount that can be spent.

Prizes. Prizes may be awarded to the winning contestant and to runners-up, as determined by the committee, by sponsors and in accord with guidelines set by FT.

Additional winners. Winners may also be recognized in supplementary categories, such as Fastest to Platinum, Fastest to Qualify by Miles only, if the committee/FT approves.

Publicity. Contestant agrees to let their name and likeness be used for publicity related to the contest by FT, AA, AAdvantage and any sponsors of the contest for publcity relating to the contest,

Legal. Contestants agree to abide by all applicable local, national and international laws, and the rules of FT and AAdvantage and American Airlines, and any other guidelines set by the contest. [Someone should check if a release of liability is needed.] [perhaps it would be a good idea to spell out which specific FT TOS which are relevant.]

pixpixpix

The above draft set of rules has been made available to the moderators and Randy for detailed review and changes and is still subject to further changes and approval.

Please comment on specific items, or suggested additions.

One point:

There is no dollar cap. It seems in looking at it closely that it would be imposssible to resolve issues of the comparative expenses of different qualifiers, given the vagaries of currency exchange rates on different days, tax benefits of using vouchers, additional costs of getting to and from starting points, and different points of purchase. It just seems simpler not to have an expense cap. Other wise the contest can devolve into finding ways to buy tickets cheaply, rather than just flying anfd qualifying.

Kiwi Flyer

Without a $ cap the winning approach is very different, and I think less skill is needed (and more luck + deep pockets).

nako

I would agree. Removing the dollar cap would, IMO, completely defeat the original purpose of the contest.

Then again, I don't believe I'll be competing, so what do I know.

Mike

pixpixpix

How then would you determine if the trip was definitively less than $10,000USD.

Is 7015 NZD plus 5953 AUD plus a couple of Yen more or less than $10K?

What if one person uses vouchers and pays less tax?

Does the cost of a taxi between LGW and LHR count? or a non-qualifying connecting flight DLH-PVG? or even getting to a starting point, or home at the end?

There may well be a way to resolve it and set a limit. I just couldn't think of one.

Be creative folks.

Hagbard Viking

If there should be a cost limit for this I think all costs from the first qualifying flight to the last, including meals at airports, taxis, hotel rooms (probably not a winning strategy, unless it's only for a few hours), paid lounges, etc should count since they are all costs for completing the contest. Positioning flights before the first qualifying flight and after the last should not count since that would give an unfair advantage to those who live in a convenient place.

To be completely fair, I think VIP, mileage, sticker, and complimentary upgrades should be disallowed, to make this exercise equally strenuous/uncomfortable for everyone in relation to money spent.

Having said that, I do not see how a cost cap would be feasible.

Ajohn

I'm not so sure this needs to be as difficult as we're making it out go be. Why don't we keep the $10,000 cap (otherwise the richest of us just has to fly that 3 1/2-times RTW itinerary I posted previously) but say that only applies to BASE FARE as quoted on aa.com or www.oneworld.com. That should solve the vouchers problem. The limit would not include anything else -- because that's too hard to monitor -- though I agree eVIPs, stickers, complimentary upgrades should be discouraged. Currency conversion isn't too hard, either. When you ticket, you tell the committee and they record the official currency conversion rate for that day as per www.oanda.com or other site. But the gist is: keep the sum total of the base fares of your ticket (as per the airline site, not alternate breakdowns) under $10,000.

P.S. I know that some airlines (like BA) have different tax breakdowns. That's why I think we should go with just aa.com and www.oneworld.com.