Miles towards upgrades - need 627 EQM for 4 500 Mile “stickers”
Jul 9, 2018, 6:39 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: OH
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat, Marriot Lifetime Gold
Posts: 9,539
Miles towards upgrades - need 627 EQM for 4 500 Mile “stickers”
OK, can anyone help me figure out how these are calculated? I'm a LT Platinum whose travel has been curtailed significantly. I'm 627 miles away from earning 4 more upgrade certs and want to make sure that I fly enough this year to earn those upgrades.
Jul 9, 2018, 8:07 am
#3
Join Date: Jun 2018
Location: CLT
Posts: 89
AAdvantage® members have a base of 500 EQMs for flights under 500 miles on American and oneworld® airlines (250 EQMs for flights under 500 miles on Basic Economy fares).^ To calculate final EQMs earned, the multiplier for airline and booking code flown is applied to this base.
Jul 9, 2018, 9:28 am
#4
Join Date: Sep 2008
Programs: A3 *G, AA exePlat, AS MVP 75k Gold, JL sapphire, UA silver
Posts: 4,035
cant you buy the stickers? it does not seem to make sense to do a mileage run to earn the stickers.. if you are flying anyways, wouldnt 6xx miles would be easy to achieve regardless?
Jul 9, 2018, 12:34 pm
#6
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: AA PLT, IHG Spire
Posts: 551
If you search you will find reports of people who were just shy of upgrade stickers getting most of them (2,3) by asking nicely at the end of the year. after the window closes. So I would expect you probably would get three of them if you are that close.
Jul 9, 2018, 1:27 pm
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: OH
Programs: AA Lifetime Plat, Marriot Lifetime Gold
Posts: 9,539
I don't seem to be getting 500 miles per flight towards upgrades. I know that is EQM minimum and I am getting those towards status (though I'll never earn Plt again, thank goodness for lifetime status, keeps me loyal) but it seems like the miles towards upgrades is calculated differently. I won't be doing a mileage run for the stickers and could just buy them. I just can't figure out the calculation with the new earn rate. I'm sure I'll earn them since I will likely have a RDU-HOU flight this year and likely one to NYC. But I hate the new earn program, makes my spreadsheet harder to manage 
Jul 9, 2018, 2:00 pm
#8
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: AA PLT, IHG Spire
Posts: 551
As far as I can tell, EQM is just the actual distance flown, with a guaranteed minimum of 500 miles. There are multipliers that can increase or decrease the EQM earned based on booking class (0.5x for basic econ, 2x for J, etc.). But for most economy flights the EQM is equal to the mileage between the cities.
AA.com spells out the earning classes when you look at earning miles flying on AA.
AA.com spells out the earning classes when you look at earning miles flying on AA.