nsummy

Subject is kind of worded funny but here is my dilemma. I usually fly UA from out of a regional airport & came close to hitting Mileage plus silver (aa gold equivelant) last year. It would have been purely on segments, not even close with miles.

In March I am going to be flying to Europe & back. AA has the cheapest fare and I figured it might be a good time to do a challenge. At .5 point earning I pretty much will fly enough to earn 5000 points. If I pay the extra $120 and an extra $350 for the higher class I can get 1 point per mile and hit platinum. My question would be is it worth paying the extra? Is there that much of a benefit?

For the most part I only fly domestically about 5-6 times a year (but will probably fly to S America later this year) and as I said, usually only United & to be honest I would probably use a United challenge after I get status on AA. If I had platinum I might use AA more though. Is there any real benefit of platinum besides the extra mileage earning? Its my understanding that unlike United you have to buy your upgrades, they aren't just given out based on availability. Thanks!

FWAAA

Platinum would give you lounge access on international itineraries (Europe, S America, Mexico City and Asia). You'd also have a much better chance of upgrades clearing compared to being Gold.

AA gives Golds and Platinums four 500 mile e-upgrades (fka "stickers") for every 10k miles flown, so that's equal to at least 20% of your domestic flying. You earn them on AA/Oneworld miles flown and you can only use them on domestic flights (50 states, Canada, Mexico, Central America and Caribbean). Is platinum worth the extra money? Only you can answer that one.

djibouti

Keep in mind that with a March challenge you will have your status until February 2014, NOT February 2015 (per the wiki, anyway).

Challenges starting (or maybe completing?) in July or later will give status through February 2015.

vasantn

Starting June 16 or later.

grahampros

if you cant even qualify for status on your primary airline not very likely you fly enough to worry about the status.

diver858

Once you achieve PLAT status, you will receive 100% bonus of miles flown, versus 25% for GLD. At $0.02 per mile, flying at least 30k miles as PLAT could be considered a break-even proposition.

SeriouslyLost

OK, just to hijack the thread slightly, can anyone explain what the point of a status challenge is?! As in, why would I pay money to do one?

If I'm going to be flying to China in April, Australia in May, and New Zealand (via Oz in August & Fiji in Dec) plus half a dozen US flights then I'll rack up the miles for PLT after the first Oz trip in May: wouldn't I get PLT status at that point anyway? Surely I'm missing something here, but I've read through the various stickies and nowhere does it say why anyone would pay money to do this challenge.

DevilsX

You only need to fly 10k EQP to hit PLT when doing a challenge. For those who don't have time/money to fly 50k EQM to qualify, they can just fly 10k miles at whatever fare that offers full EQP per mile and pay the fee which would still be cheaper and quicker than qualifying the normal way.

FWAAA

Platinum status takes 50k eqm, 50k eqp or 60 segments. Paid challenges get you to that status very quickly. One long-haul trip in premium (1.5 eqp per mile) or discount economy (1.0 eqp per mile) and you can be mid-level elite. That way, you can earn 100% bonus miles, enjoy lounge access and better upgrade odds on the rest of your flights that year. Qualifying the hard way means you don't enjoy those benefits until you've flown 50k eqm or 50k eqp or 60 segments.

dmbtr3

I did it last year for the 100% bonus miles. Got about an extra 20,000 miles after a TPAC earlier. This allowed me to book an upcoming TATL vacation for my wife and I on miles. I wouldn't have had enough in time without the challenge. Saved me more money than I spent.

grahampros

Let's get back to the original point. paying for status from the OP's situation does not seem to make sense. Doesn't even fly enough on UA to get status. The OP is probably hopping for that uppgrade is the reason for the post. reality is unlikely to happen.

bdemaria

Given your flying habits, I'm not sure its worth the $$, but there is an add'l thing to consider: AA's traditional "soft landing" policy for elites. which means that if you fail to requalify for PLT, you will drop down to Gold, so via the PLT challenge you could end up w/AA status for 2+ years.

grahampros

let's get serious cant even hit low class silver on on UA so it's not the issue. trying to score that uprade on transatlantic is what's going on.

nsummy

Thanks for all of your comments, especially bdemaria who brings up an interesting point. I realize I don't fly that often compared to most people on here. I guess my question came down to whether the benefits of Platinum are that much better than gold. Yes there is double miles but if I fly 10,000 miles this year at a valuation of .02 that is still only $200. As far as the lounges go on international flights I'm sure I can buy passes online (if its anything like United). I still think I will do the Gold challenge but probably will not do the platinum.

Also this is one of the reasons I love flyertalk, unlike other forums I know I will get multiple answers, with multiple opinions, in a short amount of time

SeriouslyLost

Ah. That is clear then. Well, colour me Missing The Obvious now that you've pointed it out.

Thank you to all who answered!