# For Those Of You Who Want Status On American Airlines, Fly By June 15



## Hoc (Apr 18, 2008)

American Airlines, on the heels of its one-week cancellation fiasco, has just announced an offer for double elite qualifying miles.  All flights on American Airlines/American Eagle/American Connections (not on their codeshares) will earn double miles toward qualifying you for gold, platinum or executive platinum status in their frequent flyer program.

There are restrictions, such as that the extra miles will be usable only for status, not for booking fares or upgrades, and it applies only to flights flown by June 15.  But this is the first time they have offered to double the qualifying miles since I've been flying with them, and it makes sense to do it if you are interested in getting those elite benefits for this year and next.

In other words, fly 12,500 miles and you're gold, 25,000 miles and you're platinum and 50,000 miles and you are Executive Platinum.

The registration code is AADER.  Go here for more details.


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## JoeMid (Apr 18, 2008)

Here's what I got: :whoopie:


> Dear Joe Gish,
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## CapriciousC (Apr 18, 2008)

Excellent!!  Thanks for posting!  My hubby must not be paying attention to his e-mail - he's got lifetime Gold status and hasn't mentioned this.

Regarding the Elite Rewards, I wouldn't suggest the 500-Mile upgrades.  My husband has a ton of them in his account, and used to be able to use them regularly, but on his last several flights (he flies American round-trip about three times a month) hasn't been able to use them.  By the time they'll let him request first class, it's usually sold out.

We've got a couple of flights planned to the east coast from California in the next couple of months - should be enough for my daughter and I to re-qualify for Gold status.


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## DebBrown (Apr 18, 2008)

<big sigh>  We're flying to Spain in a couple of weeks but using award tickets.  

Deb


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## tlsbooks (Apr 18, 2008)

*Gosh, you scared me*

I just booked two FF tickets for October and I thought, from the headline, that you were saying fly before June 15th because then they're closing down.  

Tamara


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## Jimster (Apr 18, 2008)

*AA*

AA is the largest airline in the US (at least for now)  They will not be closing up operations in the near or distant future.    The OP relates to an offer of securing elite status on the airline.  My question is whether this is only a targeted offer?


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## Hoc (Apr 19, 2008)

Jimster said:


> My question is whether this is only a targeted offer?



No, it is available to anyone who registers.


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## Carolinian (Apr 19, 2008)

I have a business trip back to the states this summer that I could move up to June, so this is tempting.  With the possiblity that the DOJ might approve DL's takeover of NW, I am looking at either UA or AA as alternatives, and unfortunately both usually do challenges rather than comps in transfering elite status from another airline.  No way I would stay with DL if Northbest goes away!  Customer service sank enough during the years I was a Gold Medallion with DL and it has gotten worse since.

Unfortunately, for TATL travel, AA has two major strikes against it; BA and Heathrow.  That leaves me leaning to UA.  Hopefully they will come up with some sort of promotion.


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## Hoc (Apr 19, 2008)

Carolinian said:


> With the possiblity that the DOJ might approve DL's takeover of NW, I am looking at either UA or AA as alternatives, and unfortunately both usually do challenges rather than comps in transfering elite status from another airline.



Of course, a challenge is often the most cost-effective way to gain Platinum status on AA.  That's how I did it my first time, in a single weekend trip from LAX-MSY.  Found a Y-Up fare where I could fly First Class from LAX to New Orleans, and flew LAS-LAX-DFW-ORD-MSY, spent the weekend, and flew back in First Class MSY-DFW-ORD-LAX, and took my final leg back to LAS for a weekend in Vegas.  Cost $586 in airfare, and got my Platinum status on that one trip.  I've been Platinum consistently for the last 5 or 6 years.  But you can't challenge to keep status, and my qualifying flying this year is down due to higher airfares, so I was pretty much resigned to having to buy my status for next year.  Now, I just booked a round trip to Heathrow that will get me 22,000 miles and re-qualify me for Platinum.  About the same price as buying back my status, except I get an additional 22,000 miles to spend, and a weekend in London in May, to boot.


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## Hoc (Apr 19, 2008)

Carolinian said:


> That leaves me leaning to UA.  Hopefully they will come up with some sort of promotion.



For the last couple of years, UA has offered their frequent flyers the opportunity to pay about $400 and get double qualifying miles for the last two months or so of the year.  They'll probably do it again this year.


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## Icarus (Apr 19, 2008)

Hoc said:


> For the last couple of years, UA has offered their frequent flyers the opportunity to pay about $400 and get double qualifying miles for the last two months or so of the year.  They'll probably do it again this year.



There was no DEQM promo last year, Hoc.

-David


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## Pat H (Apr 19, 2008)

Hoc said:


> For the last couple of years, UA has offered their frequent flyers the opportunity to pay about $400 and get double qualifying miles for the last two months or so of the year.  They'll probably do it again this year.



UA didn't have this offer in 2007 much to my disappointment.


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## Carolinian (Apr 20, 2008)

Hoc said:


> Of course, a challenge is often the most cost-effective way to gain Platinum status on AA.  That's how I did it my first time, in a single weekend trip from LAX-MSY.  Found a Y-Up fare where I could fly First Class from LAX to New Orleans, and flew LAS-LAX-DFW-ORD-MSY, spent the weekend, and flew back in First Class MSY-DFW-ORD-LAX, and took my final leg back to LAS for a weekend in Vegas.  Cost $586 in airfare, and got my Platinum status on that one trip.  I've been Platinum consistently for the last 5 or 6 years.  But you can't challenge to keep status, and my qualifying flying this year is down due to higher airfares, so I was pretty much resigned to having to buy my status for next year.  Now, I just booked a round trip to Heathrow that will get me 22,000 miles and re-qualify me for Platinum.  About the same price as buying back my status, except I get an additional 22,000 miles to spend, and a weekend in London in May, to boot.



Personally, I like airlines that do comps rather than challenges.  When I bailed out of the DL SkyMiles Medallion program back in the Rob BOrden days, I just sent NW a photocopy of my DL Gold Medallion card along with a printout of my SKyMies account showing flights, and they comped me Worldperks Gold.  Simple and painless.


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## Hoc (Apr 20, 2008)

Carolinian said:


> Personally, I like airlines that do comps rather than challenges.



Same here, because you are flying without status until the challenge is complete.  But AA doesn't comp status and requires a challenge.  So, challenges are the best way to get Gold or Platinum status on AA.  However, they won't allow a challenge for Executive Platinum, so flying 100K miles in a year (or buying $20,000 worth of travel in a year and prepaying) is the only way to get that.  Except during this promotion, when you can do it with 50K miles in two months.


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## Carolinian (Apr 20, 2008)

Hoc said:


> Same here, because you are flying without status until the challenge is complete.  But AA doesn't comp status and requires a challenge.  So, challenges are the best way to get Gold or Platinum status on AA.  However, they won't allow a challenge for Executive Platinum, so flying 100K miles in a year (or buying $20,000 worth of travel in a year and prepaying) is the only way to get that.  Except during this promotion, when you can do it with 50K miles in two months.



AA's elite terminology doesn't track with other airlines.  Gold is low tier status on AA but mid-tier on most others.  Platinum is top tier on most but mid-tier on AA.  Silver is low tier on most carriers, but AA calls that Gold.


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## sfwilshire (Apr 20, 2008)

Thanks for posting. I signed up the whole family just in case. I have a one-way flight booked with AA in the timeframe. I may not get another one, but will try to book them if I can. 

I haven't been flying much for the last few years, so don't have status with any of the airlines. My restrictions at work make it impossible to favor any one airline, so I fly them all about equally.

Sheila


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