A self-answered question requesting confirmation
 

So, if I understand the FAQ correctly...

I just flew 30K to requalified for my SL, if I fly another 30K I get the GL, BUT, if I want the DM the same year I would need to fly another 120K, not just 60K more, to get the DM?

So for THIS YEAR, I need 30K + 30K + 120K = 180K for the DM?

Therefore, if I got the GL this year and NEXT CYCLE YEAR it would only take me 120K to get the DM correct?

So.... there's really no motivation for me to keep putting miles into CX after I qualified for the GL, and then I should dump the remaining miles into AA and get the AA PLT by using challenge. That sounds like good strategy?

Not exactly.

Once you qualify for GO, your "cycle year" will reset and you will need to earn 120K in the next 12 months after you qualify for GO to hit DM.

Any time you change status, your "cycle year" reset to start on the date you changed status. So if you're SL now, you need to fly 60K miles before your SL year expires and you will be made GO, and then another 120K in the 12 months after you make GO to qualify for DM.

So once you make GO, you should continue to put miles into CX if you want to renew your GO or make DM.

If you just requalified at SL and want to move straight to DM you will need 150K (30k to GO plus the 120k to DM).

If you wanted to maximize your frequent flyer benefits then you might do the following:

- stay at SL for now and take CX flights whenever convenient. Just fly another 30k before your current year expires to make GO.

- enjoy GL for another year while flying 120k to make DM.

- if you timed it right then you got another year of SL, a year of GO and a year of DM for 150k vs only a year of DM if you fly the full 150k right now.

PS - do you fly mainly regional or longhaul? I fly regional and find it much easier to make status with the generous new segment rules, mainly because I fly ex TPE which always requires a transfer in HKG. From green you would need 20 sectors to hit SL, then 40 to make GO and finally 80 to make DM. That is only 28 roundtrips in C or 35 in Y.

good advice guys thanks
 

Ok, I didn't know the cycle rule on new status, that's very helpful and I think I'll do just that, get the GO and then go for DM, which shouldn't be hard for me now.

I fly mainly long-haul (based in JFK) so my best bet is mileage accumulation, not sector accumulation.

If you just qualified at SL, you have to fly 60k more to get GL, not 30k

And then when you get GL you need to fly 120k more to get DM

From scratch it is 210k to get DM (30 + 60 + 120)

Unless something changed and I missed it

True, but that's not what the OP asked. Read it again, carefully.