I'm not sure why everyone is saying that you get 4 SWUs for international upgrades from AA. You get 8 every time you qualify for the top tier.

CC miles (generally) do not count towards elite status, and definitely not on AA.

8 for 8 one-ways. 4 for 4 r/t. They are really one and the same.

Um, OK. I still think the phrasing below is incorrect.

Happy, I will indeed spend some time reading up on AA's policies. I have to say that the sheer volume of information here is a bit overwhelming.

I appreciate that it must be very trying to answer yet another newbies questions that are probably out there if we simply knew where to look. Thanks for taking the time to point me in the right direction.

Yeah, to be technically correct, it is 8 SWUs each good for a one-way upgrade.

My advice would be to go to the AA board and read the stickies, the FAQ and the Wiki. There is a tremendous amount that you can learn.

Actually the STICKY in AA Forum is very nicely prepared, with plain language and links to the aa website for each topic discussed, as well as real life experiences posted by other FTers. It is one of the best-prepared STICKIES in FT site thanks to some enthusiastic AA elites.

May be it is just me, I prefer to understand the fundamentals of each program instead of bits this bits that, and in the meantime misunderstand many important aspects, such as you were thinking credit card miles would help you achieve elite status...

To give you another perspective, for the 100,000 miles flown to earn EXP, I mentioned it would be 20 Transcon trips from east coast to west coast and back, or may be 13 - 14 TransAtlantic trips from east coast to Europe, or 8 TransPacific trips from east coast to Asia.

Are you prepared to fly these many miles, in coach, in this year by December so you would qualify for EXP?

I don't know. I am willing to give it a good try if I have a long term goal at the end of it. I know that we used to do at least 2 or 3 trips overseas a month, sometimes going from NYC to Europe to Korea and back and often I would come home to NC a time or two during the month. I'm sure I did way more than 100,000 miles a year then and it didn't seem to bother me too much. Of course I forget that I am a lot longer in the tooth now too and perhaps the travel would take more of a toll on me. This I will have to wait and see.

I will be in Nicaragua for 5 weeks so will be losing out on some time, and some of the cheapest travel time to boot. Oh well.

I really don't dislike flying now, honestly, if I did, I would stay more local and drive to vacations. I love hunting down the deals (and hunting down the best mileage runs could feed that) and yes, I still get excited heading out to the airport knowing I will be up in the air shortly. I just had forgotten how much nicer, calmer and more relaxing it was to travel the other way.

I will concentrate of reading the AA board before asking more questions!

I am also a person who does not fly for business. I have been a mileage addict for years. FT has helped me expand my mileage earning opportunities...:D

OK, time for a reset.

If you pay the cheapest airfare possible, you will never hit elite status.

By committing to one airline/alliance, even if it costs a few more dollars, you will reach a higher status faster.

Since you are in RDU, look into a Platinum Challenge with AA which will get you mid-tier status much easier than flying 50K miles.

I do relate to what you are saying about flying. A little over a year ago I had no status with an airline, never even had it. But I had two scheduled TATLs in Dec 08 and figured I would do maybe 3 TATLs in 2009. I scoured the FT and discovered the PLT Challenge and was a PLT after one TATL. As I was flying from SAN-DFW, (paid Y, upgraded to F) one evening enjoying a tasty calzone I realized just how fun flying can be!

AA does allow upgrades on cheap fares. As you were advised above, read the AA stickys. They are a gold mine.

Good luck trying to figure all of this out!

First of all, Welcome to FT, NC_Girl

El Chiflero, you might to have to account a little more for a different base especially seems BOS/JFK always have the cheapest fares. For instance, my base of YYZ is extremely high cost. I said plan for $300 a transcon trip. NC_Girl, and other than just pure mileage run, try to plan 1/2 day trip to place then return on red-eye, yes it tires you out but it may life awhole lot more enjoyable.

With your budget, my suggestion would actually go for PLT not EXP. PLT on 3000-4000 dollar budget while not impossible to go for EXP. But it would make it more like work travel almost with going for EXP then PLT. And since PLT get 100% tier bonus anyway, flying 50000 EQM would get you one far-away reward tix in J. I'll go with getting CC for your program, they do help in getting to that goal in the end

Yes, but with enough flexibility and time, I believe it as buying options for the future.

That's all i have time to answer now, but try to come into chat sometime between 11pm-1am eastern time on a weekday.

Welcome to FT, NC_Girl. You sound to me like you have great potential for becoming addicted like many of us :cool:.

Bobette

Honestly, you just need to read the board's of the major airlines and be on the lookout for the best deals to earn miles. For the $3k-$4k annual travel budget you mention you could have recently obtained 500,000 miles on US Airways (see this thread) which would have been enough for 3-4 international round-trips in First Class on some very good airlines (Lufthansa, Swiss, Thai, or Singapore, for example). Unfortunately that offer is gone now, but there will be others in the future, maybe not quite as lucrative, but they will come.

Status is not what you need, what you want is to earn as many miles as you can for as little as possible, then use those miles to get free tickets in premium cabins to head overseas. Wait for good credit card offers from airlines. Be on the look out for partner offers (Delta and US Airways have both run lucrative promotions the past few years to earn bonus miles based on partner transactions, for example). Be aware of the best idine bonuses for any given time.

Of course with this strategy you will not earn a free Business or First Class ticket in every program each year, but you should be able to earn one next year in one program, then another in a different program the following year and so on. It's much easier to pick up say 500 miles a day if you don't focus on a single program, and eventually you can get enough miles to get an award, sure it may take a few years, but that's okay. If you can pick up just 500 miles/day through various promotions, offers, credit cards, and of course the occasional actual travel, that would be 180,000 miles a year, enough for a one or two nice premium cabin international awards a year.

Also, if you're looking for weekend trips out of RDU, you should absolutely consider Southwest. If you just want to hop down to Florida or up to Washington or even to Vegas for a weekend, they offer a perfectly good product if you're on a non-stop flight (free ticket on Southwest after first purchase with their credit card with this offer).

Yes, but with enough flexibility and time, I believe it as buying options for the future.


I do not disagree. :D

Welcome to FT NC_Girl!

I would like to provide my own experience in this whole FT cult(ure).

When I first found this site back in '05, I was not aware of anything. Not that I'm saying I didn't travel (I flew transpac at least once a year since I was a 5 yo). However, I never really understood the concepts and practices that are now near and dear to my heart. I don't travel for work, all the money spent is out of my own pocket, and I go on MR's to earn miles to be spent later on.

I started with a scattering of miles on AA, UA, and some points on WN. All told, I had around 70,000 miles between AA and UA. That was then. Fast forward to now... in the past 4+ years, I went from that to close to 1,000,000 miles on UA, AA, DL, and NW. I've dropped WN entirely (as they don't earn any high value trips internationally). I went from zero status to at least mid-tier status on 2 different airlines, flying anywhere between 100K to 150K miles a year (with help from 2x EQM promos). With those miles, I've redeemed about 700,000 miles for the following:
2 Biz class tickets LAX to Australia (worth $16K)
1 Biz class ticket LAX to India and Russia (worth $10K)
2 Econ class ticket LAX to Taiwan (worth $1.3K)
2 Biz class tickets LAX to Tokyo, Vietnam, Hong Kong (worth $16K)
and some other domestic flights. In addition, I've redeemed several thousand dollars worth of hotel rooms (some worth $500 a night) using hotel points.

The point I'm making is that it can be a lucrative hobby, if you know how to maximize your money and miles. My annual travel budget is under $3,000 and I can attain the elite status that gives the 100% bonus miles, which is what allows me to earn miles to redeem for those big trips. I mainly fly on tickets that cost around 3 cents per elite qualifying mile, or 1.5 cents per redeemable mile from my elite bonus (I also learned to earn miles on credit cards, with about 200,000 miles earned via credit card promos.

At any rate, personal story aside, if you dedicate yourself to learning the tricks of the trade discussed here (mistake airfares, cheap airfares, trick airfares, credit card promos, etc.) you'll be richly rewarded with frequent travel around the country on the cheap, and the payoff from that will be luxury travel that you normally wouldn't be able to afford.