I know there have been different statements made as to if Diners Club or American Express points can be counted under TWA's 2001 policy of counting partner miles for Elite status.

Presuming that they can be (I had someone tell me this the other day), I could easily transfer 50,000 miles over to TWA to get Elite 1 through the end of 2002.

Now, what is everyone's take on the transfer of Elite status from TW to AA? Will Elite 1 give me Platinum on AA?

Greg

Greg,

SDFlyer said that he called Aviators and was told that MR rewards transfers do not count towards elite status. So be careful. Otherwise it is a no brainer.

Greg
What did you find out about American Express points counting toward Elite status?

Yes,

Elite 1 on TW will give you AA Plat. My status has already been matched through Feb 2002.

I have asked the question about all TW miles counting towards status, but have not gotten a definitive answer as of yet. If that is the case, I'll try for Plat on TW, which would be EXP on AA.

I never looked into the transfer of Diners Club points, as I qualified for Platinum on AA with their Challenge and not through point transfers on AA.

Greg

I checked a few months ago. Supposedly miles posted directly to TWA Avaitors were to count toward Elite status this year -- but not transferred in points. However, with AA, not sure how they will count these at all.

My concern is that miles earned in 2001 (which should be counting for 2002 status) will not count on AA, except to give you status you have with TWA to Feb. 2002 (essentially the status AA flyers earned for flights in 2000).

If they move the miles earned in 2001 (actual) to AA as "counting miles toward status", then one should get the status earned during 2001 for the Feb 2002-Feb. 2003 year. But if they transfer as Bonus miles only - none will count toward this.

I don't know how they're going to do it for you Aviators, but for AAdvantage elite qualification, all qualifying miles must be actual flight miles. Points transfers and bonuses don't count for qualification for us.

According to both AA and TW, miles earned in 2001 on both airlines will be combined towards Elite qualification on AA that would be good until Feb 2003. Now, what has not been said is if one can still qualify for the old TW Elite levels under the TW rules, and have that transfer to AA status through Feb 2003 as well. 2000 TW Elite status has already been matched by AA, good through Feb 2002, but that's it.

If all TW points, excluding transfers, will count towards Elite qualifying, then I'll keep my miles on TW until Nov 30. If not, I'll earn AA miles to get the 100% bonus and miles towards upgrade certs...

SoCal,

I believe that it is very clear that miles earned from the transfering of Amex or Diner's points do not qualify for elite status on TWA (though other partner mileage does count). When the November transfer date comes around AA also said that they will add in all of your TWA earned flown miles with the AA flown miles to determine elite status.

If I were you I would put all my TWA miles on my AA account so that (as you said) I would get the 100% bonus miles and credit towards the 500-mile upgrade certs. I do not see any downside here - other than the difficulty some elite TWA members have had when trying to upgrade their TWA flights, but there are ways around that.

ff

Is there confirmation somewhere that other partner mileage will still count towards elite qualification on TW? If so, I've got some work to do to make Plat on TW before the end of November.

Socalterp et al,

I'm also very curious about this because it looks like it is very worthwhile to make the jump from Elite 1 to Platinum in order to benefit from Executive Platinum benefits. I'm not so sure I'd be very comfortable relying on partner miles in order to get status. I think I'd rather fly the miles.

There is an interesting difference between the Aviators and AAdvantage that makes it seem that several mileage runs on TWA this summer and fall will pay off well. I refer specifically to the minimum "actual" miles flown as elite level frequent fliers in the two programs.

For me as an Elite 1, every 4 segment trip (ie: MCI-ORD) translates into ~7,000 miles. 4,000 actual flight miles, 2,000 bonus miles, and 1,000 online booking bonus. 25 such trips in a whole year get Platinum. Which also translates into 175,000 total frequent flyer miles.

If anyone has questions about how to put together trips like this I've posted in this forum before details on how to work through it or you can just email me.

TW Partner miles still count for Elite Status on TW. My account was just upgraded 10 days ago based on miles earned using MBNA Aviators Mastercard. But, I still worry that AA will not count these miles as "qualifying miles" to determine my Aadvantage status from Feb02 to Feb03, even though my TW elite status is currently valid through Feb03. AA had said they would add all of one's qualifying miles from Aadvantage plus all of one's qualifying miles from Aviators to determine 2002 elite status. But, who know's what definintion of qualifying miles will be used?

My guess would be that because your status is valid through Feb03 that will be what AA will consider. At least that's what I hope they consider. I find it hard to believe they would go through each and every account and parse out the miles to determine their exact origin.

As I already have about 130,000 actual miles on TWA, it is a mute point about the partner miles. But TWA announced (and I have a copy) that starting this year they would count partner "miles" toward Elite status. Those would include Avaitor credit card, Rental car, hotel, etc. postings to your TWA accounts. It would not count transfers of mile from another account -- i.e. from HHonors.

However, exactly how AA will count these partner miles is anyone's guess -- unless someone has seen something specific. I would have thought that if you had earned a certain status this year (2001 earnings) that would be good for the 2002-2003 year, that AA would honor the equivalent level on AA. i.e. If someone started with TWA in January and flew 85,000 miles and had 15,000 miles from TWA credit card by Sept., AA would grant them Exec. Platinum through 2003. BUT, what seems fair is not always how it works.

I also think flying TWA gives me more points (to eventually transfer to AA) due to the minimum 1,000 mile and 100% bonus (+ 1,000 for Web booking and miles for $$ spend). For a 4 short segment round trip, I usually earn about 4K status miles and 5K bonus miles. I don't think I would get this on AA.
(And I always go First Class on TWA)

Here's what you would get on AA as a PLT or EXP. 1K bonus for web booking (You can make reservation on the web and get ticketed at airport or CTO if you wanted to instead of web for most fares.)

500 mile minimum for segments. 100% bonus for Y fares. 125% for J fares. 150% bonus for F fares.

Actual flight miles count for qualifying miles (But the 500 minimum segment counts for flight miles. At least you don't lose here.)