Howdy...

I am a consultant, so I fly frequently to a single location and tend to rack up a bunch of miles on a single airline. I have been Platinum with Northwest for years now since I traveled a lot from Orlando (my home) to Wisconsin.

I now have another contract and I am heading to Dallas. I flew AA but I am stuck back in steerage since I don't have any miles with them and I now realize how spoiled I have been with NW upgrades. I need upgrades or at least enough status to pick exit row seats at booking.

What is the quickest way to get status for upgrades with AA? I will fly at least two non-stops a week for a least 6 months, so I will make at least Platinum, but I want to get there quickly. Should I just book 1 stop trips for now until I get status, or is there another way? Also, I can't choose the fare level when I book through AmEx, so that's out. Also, my credit card is a Marriott Visa which I love, so I don't want to switch over to an AA card, unless its absolutely necessary.

Is there a second option for using the partnership with NW to get upgrades now for Continental? I would have to stop in Houston, but it is worth the extra stops.

Thank you for your anticipated knowledge. Love the site so far and I think I am going to stick around for a long time to come.

Hi, gatorray, welcome to ft! ^

And as is the standard way to welcome newbies, allow me to point out the stickes in the top of this forum. One of them contains a link for something called the Status Match Master Thread -- you can use the info there to try to convince AA to comp you EXP (or at least Platinum) status on the basis of your PE status with NW.

In regards to flying with NW status on CO, you can see how others have fared by looking in the NW and CO forums. As a NW elite, I've always had great seats on CO planes, but I've never been upgraded, and from what I've read, upgrades can be hard to come by for a lot of CO elites, as well.

Snoop around and you will find answers to all your questions, as well as answers to questions you never thought to ask!

Happy posting!

:-:3timesalady:-:

AA seems to use "challenges" instead of status match. If you reach a certain number of points within a certain period of time you get status. Check out this thread:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=702660.

The wiki entry that it refers to contains a phone number that you can call to sign up.

Two notes:
1. There are references to AA cutting back on the challenges, so it may be more difficult than it has been in the past
2. There are references to tactics to get gold status first and then platinum (both through challenges), so that you get status earlier than you would if you signed up for platinum from the beginning - be sure to check it out so that you can minimize your "status-less" time.

Wow! Awesome tip. If I am reading this correctly, then I should be able to reach the Platinum challenge if they offer it to me.

I think my math is correct:

985 miles per leg.
July 1st - October 1st = ~13 weeks x 2 legs per week = 26
26 X 985 = 25610 points since most fares I buy earn at 1.0 per mile.
I may even get some Y, B and F fares booked since it is a busy route. i will also book more 1 stops so that I get some more points.

Does that look right? Should I go for it?

BTW...thank you for the tip on CO. I hear they are a great airline, but if it is difficult to get upgrades, then that will steer me away.

Welcome to Flyertalk, and assuming the flights you take do earn 1EQP, that looks right! Keep in mind you only need 10K points for the challenge to Plat, so that's a lot more than you need!

Look at the AA forum here on flyertalk. there is some very good info there and experts at the challenges.

Thank you to all of those that posted. I have been all over the place getting my info and I finally called AA and they enrolled me in the Platinum challenge. After my flight tonight I will be 1/4 of the way to 10,000 with just two flights so I expect to be Platinum by the end of this month since I have purchased some first class fares and some extra trips.

I couldn't talk my way into gold status for now...I asked politely and even through my NWA status out there. No go. I really need those exit rows. Oh well, I will cramp myself for a few more weeks.

Again, thank you for the help and I hope I can start contributing to this forum soon.

Welcome to Flyertalk! Going for the Platinum Challenge is better in the long run than being upgraded to Gold immediately so I'd say you've done well. ^

I think the challenges are a good way of getting status quickly for the regular (and not so!) regular traveller. Much better for all parties than a straight-up comp.

This is probably an obvious suggestion, but if you enroll in the Aadvantage program, there are tons of hotels that are partnered with AA and give you miles-some are flat rate miles and others are XX per $ room rate. Go to the aadvantage website and wander around for the various offers. Marriott is one of their partners (same offer 2:1 others are 1:1 in the Marriott chain.) Same thing with car rentals and restaurants.

I assume you book all of your travel yourself. A number of travel agencies that do high volume with AA can get exit row seats for their clients who do not have status. If you are interested in pursuing this, send me a PM.

I respectfully disagree with the suggestion to credit hotel stays to Aadvantage. You can get 10 Marriott points per $ spent in the Marriott program - and then by use of travel packages (see Marriott forum), convert those miles 1:1 into Aadvantage miles. Much better to get 10 miles per $ spent later than 2 or 3 immediately.

Another bit of advice: please use descriptive thread titles, instead of generic "advice needed" titles. @:-) (Imagine how these forums would look if everybody just titled their threads "need some advice!" ) That's in the TOS, as well. Do some lurking and read the TOS, stickies, and existing threads on the relevant forums.