Trial Preferred Status (merged) [Master Thread]
 

Hi there, first I must thank everyone for the unbelievable amount of info you all share.

I just accepted a temporary position on the east coast and live on the west coast. I'll mainly be flying between LAX and PHL, at least twice per month, for four years. Using your help, I decided to do the Trial Preferred program. I started the program on Nov. 28 at the Silver level and have about 7200 preferred miles (BIS) so far. I'll easily make gold, possibly platinum.

My question is about getting close to PP or even CP. If I am close to one of the next higher levels, would I be allowed to buy up to the next level, up to 22,500 or 30,000? Or would I just stay at the level I achieved and have to reach the next regular level by earning BIS miles after the trial is over, up to 75,000 or 100,000?

I'm trying to find if I should just do a mileage run before my trial is over since it will take exponentially longer to earn the miles to reach the next level after the trial period is up.

Thanks everyone.

You can buy any level you want but the price of the buy-up program is based on your BIS miles, not your status. The buy-up is based on the full requirement and not the trial mileage requirement. So if you do a Trial Preferred and fly 15k miles to reach Gold (or whatever the exact mileage requirement is), you would need to buy up to CP based on 85k, or, the 100k minimum for CP minus the 15k you have already flown. PP you'd need to buy up for 60k (75k requirement minus yout 15k already flown). You don't get any break on buying the higher tiers based on anything you do on the trials and you can't buy at the trial status mileage levels.

To paraphrase Patti above, the buy-up makes no sense in the trial.

Do MR's to get to the next level. There are fares from LAX to BOS, for example, in the $240 to $260 ai range that will get you about 5200 or 5600 PQM's depending on your routing. If you register and can get it in before the end of December you can get the BOS double-up for over 10k PQM's.

You said that you will be flying LAX-PHL at least twice a month. That is about 30k PQM's (and then CP) right there. If you end up being a little short just take a joy ride. Don't buy up in the trial.

Thanks, that makes sense.

Wait. I thought the trial preferred program was $200 to move up each level from your current one (CP level status excluded). So if you're a general member, you can pay $200 for silver, $400 for gold, and $600 for platinum for the 90 day period. HOWEVER, the status you'll end up with (after 90 days) is determined by the amount of flying you did in that period. So if you paid $200 to become trial silver and flew 22,500 miles in those 90 days, you'll end up with platinum status. And subsequently, if you paid $600 for platinum status, and only flew 15,000 miles, you'll end up as a gold.

BTW, to the OP, if you're going to be doing LAX-PHL flights and are looking for upgrades... when I was a platinum, that was the one route that I could never get an upgrade on unless it was on a Wed or Sat.

Yes, that's how I understood it. I only paid for Silver ($200) so I only get the benefits of Silver during the trial until I fly enough miles to reach the next level.

Yes, the only upgrades I've received so far were on red eyes.

follow up ?
 

OK I bought up to Silver and flew 6 segemnts in the last 6 weeks, total miles are 7350 so I am 150 BIS miles short but two flights were o Boston double up special that gave me PQM doubled. Do the bonus PQM count towards the 7500 and if so I am at almost 10L PQM and hit it. By the way, My Upgrades as Silver preferred were 2/6.

I will post later a more detailed report but I made upgrades on BOS-LAS and BOS- CLT but not LAS-BOS Red Eye, CLT-TPA, TPA- DCA or DCA_BOS

Will the flown status (i.ex. 22.500 miles for platinum) be applied asap i've reached this peek (i.ex. after 22 days) or will it change by the end of the trial (90 days)?

I think they do a sweep every 30 days (from your original sign-up date). But don't hold me to that. However, since 22.5K is the threashold max, I would call them after those EQMs post and tell them to refresh your account.

No doubling of Pqm on trial preferred. You'll see the doubled values in your Year to Date balance but it does not count twice for the 7500 mile challenge.

When I was on the free Silver trial (buy a ticket and you're elite!), my status immediately turned to Gold as soon as my 15,000th mile posted.

The two posts immediately above from DCPatti and jrpaguia are correct. I went through this myself. Only BIS miles count in the trial - no bonus PQM's of any type count. You are silver right away but will be bumped to GP and PP as soon as you achieve those levels. This status bump will occur within a week or so. The 30 day sweep is simply an email from US telling you how you are doing in the trial.

Depending on your flying patterns don't forget to evaluate whether segments may work better for you, 10 segments to silver and so on.

Thank you for your replies! I will check it out. Good that i found this thread here. Did not know, that you can upgrade the status by flying more miles or segments, despite the buyed trial status :)

"Try Preferred Status" (merged) [Master Thread]
 

Just saw this on USAirways.com

https://membership.usairways.com/en-...preferred.html

It looks like you can only do this every 24 months but it seems like a crazy easy way to make elite status on US Airways. How does this impact availability for upgrades etc on US Airways?

I wonder if the $200 fee for this would be covered under the new American Express Platinum travel benefit.