Surgee

All good pts. THX

zipadee

I was telling my nephew and his wife about the American and United promotions. They are flying American this weekend and usually fly UA/LH twice a year internationally. So my nephew registers for the UA promotion and I see UA is offering double SEGMENTS. I qualified last year on segments. Why do you think AA doesn't offer double segments as well? United makes you pick either miles or segments. I'm not sure which one I'd choose and would have to do the math but would be nice to have that option.

MM983

Comparing the T&Cs from AA and UA...

AA:
"Double elite-qualifying miles will be calculated at 100% of the elite-qualifying miles earned for each applicable flight and will be deposited into the account of the traveling AAdvantage member within 6-8 weeks after travel is posted to your account."

UA:
"The bonus EQM/EQS will be credited 4-6 weeks after qualifying activity."


How about AA countering by offering credit when BIS miles post? ^

aktchi

Now that I think about it, I am confused about what this language would mean in practice. Let's say you take two flights in quick succession: Flight 1, Flight 2.
Let's also say that Flight 1 is long enough so that its miles, plus DBLEQ miles, if posted right away, would have made you an elite and you'd have earned bonus miles for Flight 2.

However, according to AA's announcement, the DBLEQ miles from Flight 1 may not post for several weeks after Flight 2. When they eventually do post, do you get bonus miles for Flight 2 or not?

IOW, technically at least, were you an elite at the end of Flight 1?

Mr. Bean

it did not work that way with the earlier promo. you have to wait for the DBL miles to actually post before you get any status benefits. AA was doing them in bunches, maybe once per month.

Goin-2-AA

Q: What is a qualifying mile?

I am flying AA in J for 4000 BIS miles. How many miles will be credited towards elite status for this flight?

A) 8000
B) 10000
C) 12000
D) Should just stay home.

Thanks....

Gas

MichaelColey

My guess would be technical limitations. It's likely that they have relatively simple ways to apply extra EQM for various promotions, but that they've never built out their IT structure (the databases and all of the routines that manipulate and use the data) to do the same for segments.

Panamajon513

Correct. I experienced this scenario during the spring promotion. Its simple, really: you gain the next elite level when the miles post, not before.

bdemaria

EQM (elite qualifying miles) = the miles that count toward your elite status. Ordinarily, a 4,000 mile flight in J would earn you 4,000 EQM. Under the current promotion, you would earn 8,000 EQM for this flight; 4,000 when the flight posts, and an add'l 4,000 EQM 6-8 weeks after the flight has posted.

MichaelColey

Exactly right. It won't go back and retroactively apply. The double EQM only count from the time they post.

There is one way to kind of around this (and this is what I did during the spring promo). You can do a challenge, which will give you Gold status after 10k deep discount miles (5k EQP) and/or Platinum status after 20k deep discount miles (10k EQP). The extra RDM and stickers I earned made it worth the cost of the challenge to me.

Without doing this, I would have earned no bonus (or elite benefits) for the first 25k, Gold bonus and benefits for the next 25k, and Platinum benefits for the few miles I flew beyond 50k. (I had 0 EQM to start and flew 53k miles in 13 days - 0 to EXP for about $2k.) With the challenge (and I did a Gold and upgraded it to Platinum after I hit Gold), I started earning stickers and Gold benefits after 10k flown miles and Platinum benefits after 20k. It was something like 20-25k extra RDM and 4-8 extra stickers doing it that way.

Put together a spreadsheet and see how it will work for you.

aktchi

Appreciate your thoughts and strategic thinking. I am already Gold, on soft landing, and will definitely make PLT in next few weeks. My motivation in asking the question was that after PLT is guaranteed, I'd evaluate if I can actually make EXP, otherwise I'd postpone my discretionary flights/mr's to next year for re-qualification.

That seems more meaningful to me than the gifts extra flying this year would bring - again, unless I can fly enough to actually make EXP. I am not planning to use any RDM's in near future, so in the long run doesn't matter if I earn them this year or next.

BrianV

So no one knows whether using a promo coupon will affect this? It says valid on "published fares" so I'm hesitant to use this 15% coupon AA sent me.

veganmacrochick

I signed up while on the plane on 2 Sept for the double bonus thing and then the other day signed up for the NY double miles thing and when my miles posted I only got the NY double, not the Gold double promo posted. I wonder if it's b/c I was already in air when I signed up for the Sept 2 promo or if it was the date thing....
Well, at least I got something. I'm hoping in 6 more weeks the other miles will post. The first miles posted pretty quickly though...
Just talking, I suppose not really expecting too much in an answer..

BrianV

Umm, read the details. AA will post all the activity from 9/2 - 12/15 AFTER the promo is over, generally within a few weeks, but AA states 6-8 weeks. Thus, you will not see the credits for this promo until late this year, early next year.

I also registered in flight BOS-DFW and am curious whether I'll get credit for that flight, only time will tell...

kremedonut

Using a coupon doesn't change the fare type to an unpublished fare, you just pay less for it. Anything listed on American Airlines' website is a published fare. An example of an unpublished fare is the "Name Your Own Price" bookings on Priceline.

Also, you don't have to wait for a response from this board, you can always call AA customer service with questions.