The American Airlines Gold and Platinum Challenge

For those of you that fly considerably in a year and would like to attain status with American, this unwritten benefit is very timely now. By completing a challenge offered to you by American Airlines you can bump up your status from base member to either Gold or Platinum until February 2011 within 90 days for considerably less mileage.

Step #1 is to determine if the cost and effort is worth it to you. The costs for the 90 day challenge is $100 for Gold Status and $200 for Platinum. The fees are new effective June 16th this year, but the benefits far outweigh the costs if you are a frequent flyer. And the status is good for the remainder of this year, all of 2010 and January and February of 2011.

Upon earning the required points not miles, during the 90 day period , you will be upgraded to the desired level you tried for. If Gold is received you will now receive 125% on your miles flown and the opportunity to book exit row seats at time of ticketing. If you choose and achieve Platinum status you earnings will be 200% of mileage flown. With either level if you fly 10,000 miles in any given quarter of the year you will earn 4-500 mile upgrade certs for upgrades based on availability to the next class of service.

As mentioned earlier points are used to determine your progress towards the 5000 point goal for Gold and 10,000 points for Platinum. Points are determined by the fare class of your ticket purchase. The cheapie deep discount tickets earn .5 points per mile flown, discounted coach tickets 1.0 points per mile flown and the higher fare classes like full Y and business and first class earn 1.5 points per mile flown. Your goal will be to find bargain fares in either discounted coach or higher so the flight miles will not be extreme. I am ready to do the challenge again and will as soon as I find the right fare for the majority of the 10,000 points required.

I did the challenge several years ago for Platinum status to help my overall AA mileage balance with 200% miles earned. It also gave me the opportunity to request a status match with Continental Airlines, which then gave me the chance to get a status match with BMI where I loaded up on miles at 625% per mile flown on first class tickets after reaching the 38,000 base mile threshold. Complicated scene, yes, but well worth it for me as it funded a majority of my hotel stays on our last big adventure.

For more information on the American Airlines Gold or Platinum challenge go to the Wiki page here.

Expedia Coupon Good for $30 Off

Send me your name and address and I'll send you a coupon good for a $30 savings on a hotel stay between now and December 31st.