I've never flown enough to qualify for a FF elite program. However, after contemplating this year's travel schedule, I may have enough for the lowest tier.

I've read about people doing all kinds of qualifying things for the next year. So if I earn enough miles, say, in the summertime of 2004, will I get status immediately or will I have to wait until 2005?

I most programs you will get credit at the time you achieve status.

Good luck.

edited to add "Welcome to FlyerTalk!"

[This message has been edited by fromYXU (edited Jan 02, 2004).]

If you earn status on most domestic airlines by say, June 2004, you'd have status from June 2004 (as soon as the miles post to put you over the status minimum) through February 2006.

Just so you know.

Some programs offer a quicker way of achiving status.

The following program details are based upon the assumption that you fly on cheap economy tickets.

AA offers a challenge to attain status. All you need to do is to fly 10,000 miles for Gold or 20,000 for Platinum. The catch? You have to do this within a 3 month period. But basically it comes down to one European trip, if the routing is creative to get Gold status.

If you fly on the more expensive/full fare coach or J or F fares you'll need a lot less miles. It could be as low as 7500 miles for Gold or 15,000 for Platinum.
AA does not have a challenge for the top tier - Executive Platinum.

Also, if you do the challenge in the first half of the year, your new status will only be good till the end of FEB of the following year, but if you do the challenge in the second part of the year, your new status will be good till the end of FEB of the year after next year.

Once you have status, you can't do the challenge to keep that one, but you could do one for the next level.

The concept of status running from March 1 to Feb. 28/29 is pretty much a holdover from when airlines needed time to figure out who had flown how much. With computers doing the work it's no longer necessary, but some still do it anyway.

A side benefit of this method is that, if you drop in status, the drop comes two months later than it would on a calendar year basis.

I believe there are some non-U.S. airlines that grant status for two years at a time - there was a thread on that recently that you could probably find with a search. There are surely other variations as well. (I seem to remember some airline, perhaps no longer in business, where the status year began when you qualified and lasted for 12 months from whenever that was, but that may be the product of an overactive imagination.)

(Edited to correct error pointed out below.)

[This message has been edited by Efrem (edited Jan 02, 2004).]

Entirely inaccurate. Status runs until the end of February on every major U.S. hub and spoke airline.

As I understand it, you need 5,000 qualifying points for Gold and 10,000 for Platinum.

Full fare economy or better is now 1.5 points/miles, so you'd need 3,334 or 6,667 miles for gold or plat.

You are correct. My math skills today are off . But you did mean 3,334 or 6,667 points? so you should double the numbers to get the miles needed

Hi, is there somewhere I can look to find out more details on this challenge?

Thanks

Fewmiles' unofficial AAdvantage site has some very useful information on AAdvantage challenge.

http://members.shaw.ca/fewmiles/AA/index2.html

3,334 miles at 1.5 points/mile = 5,001 qualifying points, just over the 5,000 q-points needed for gold. 6,667 miles at 1.5 for plat.
So if you fly 3,334 miles in full fare coach, business or first in 90 days, you should have enough for gold. 6,667 of such miles would be enough for plat.

On the other hand, you'd have to fly 10,000 miles in deep discount coach to get the 5,000 q-points needed for gold. Twice that for platinum. Assuming my understanding is correct.

On most frequent flier programs, the elite qualifying miles (or segments or points, depending on the program) that you accrue in year X count toward earning elite status in the year X+1. However, as sson as you earn a certain level of elite status for year X+1, most airlines give you that level of elite status for the remainder of year X, although it may take a disconcertingly long time for the airline's computer systems to realize that you are now an elite level member. In addition, most airlines carry over a provision from the old days whereby if you've earned a certain level of elite status for year X+1, that elite status does not expire until the end of February in year X+2.

Hence if you fly a lot in 2004, you will enjoy elite status during the remainder of 2004 (year X) through February 2006 (year X+2).

You are correct again. I'll just shut-up now.