If I get comped elite on NW, how long will that last? In general, when is the best time of the year to get comped, to maximize elite time?

For any program that bases its requalification from January 1 through December 31 (and almost all of them do) the best time to get comped is in early January so you have the whole year to requalify. Most programs will only comp you once so you want to avoid a situation where you get comped too late in the year to permit you to requalify for the next year.

Personally, I would recommend extreme caution is requesting comp status because most programs will only do this once in a lifetime, or at least once in a long time.

Having said all that, I originally got comped to PremEx by UA in June and thought it would be a push to requalify. As it happened I flew about 70,000 during the remainder of that year, but I remember worrying about it for a while.

Good luck.

Actually, I believe some airlines will only comp you for the current year if you get it early in the year, so you need to do some research first. As a general example, if you're comped in the first six months of the year, the comp is only good for the current year, but if you're comped July 1 or later, the comp is good through the end of the following year.

I'm not sure what NW's policy is ... someone on that board is much more likely to know.

When I was comped Platinum by AA in late April 1998, my travel agent (who did the heavy lifting to make it happen - thanks, Terry!) confirmed with them that I could requalify with 2/3 of the usual mileage. As it happened, I flew 50,000+ in eight months, but early on it was nice to know I wouldn't have to.

I don't know if this is standard procedure or something she arranged with her sales rep. I also don't know for a fact that it would have worked, but I'm pretty sure it would have.

Darn! Was just wondering if it would be possible to do some kind of perpetu-comp. Have AA match my 1K in late 2002. Have UA match my AA status in late 2003, etc. Guess that won't work then.

In my last job, I flew frequently. Now I fly much less, but I'm trying to avoid losing all my status.

I can only speak for AA, but I know every year they draw a cutoff line for exceptions. One year I had 45,000 miles and called AA cust service, and they went ahead and gave me PLT for another year. They supervisor mentioned to me that the cutoff was 40K that year...

Also, on AA you don't get downgraded more than one level a year regardless of activity. Therefore, if you have PLT and only fly 10,000 miles (for example), you would qualify as Gold the following year even though you didn't fly the necessary 25K miles.


FYI...