A multi-leg flight departing on 12/31 and 1/1, how is eqm counted:
 

I am shooting for 1p, and currently having 43,303 eqm. The scheduled MR is:

12/29
MSN-ORD 109 miles
ORD-SFO 1,846 miles
SFO-HNL 2,398 miles

12/31
HNL-SFO 2,398 miles
SFO-ORD 1,846 miles
ORD-MSN 109 miles

Now the departure of the HNL-SFO is at 11:59pm of 12/31, which should be counted for 2008, right?

So this will give me 43,303+109 (or 500 now for elite?) +1846+2398+2398 > 50k eqm.

But for the other two legs of the returning trip SFO-ORD, ORD-MSN, will it be counted towards 2009 or 2008?

HNL-SFO will count towards 2008, even if delayed. If your flight is cancelled and you're re-booked to another flight on 1/1, you may have a decent chance to lobby for the miles to be retro-posted to 12/31.

Other flights departing on 1/1 local time will count for 2009 status.

Oh, and you better hope there's not a schedule change which pushes that back to a 12:05am departure... :D

Thanks a lot for the info. It is a good point that schedule change could push the midnight flight to 1/1... Just wonder typically when is the schedule change announced? Is it likely to happen within 3 days before departure?

There is almost zero chance of a schedule change at this point; the HNL-SFO flight should be credited in 2008.

The one other quirk of this sort of situation can arise in the case of a direct flight, where the same number crosses over that time change. An example is Continentals CO52 flying EZE-IAH-EWR-FRA. If you are booked on the flight EZE-FRA you have two redeyes but only get the credit as though you flew EZE-FRA, and I believe it all would credit on 12/31.

It's been an 2350-odd departure for years now. Should be no problem.