AA Platinum Challenge - Tips

[Dave Noble]

Since there seem to be a number of questions about the AA Lack-of-challenges and lots of people seem to want to become AA CT status ( AA Candy Thief aka AKA AA Platinum ) I thought that this might be of use to some people


What are the AA Challenges

AA provides fast track methods to achieve status to Gold ( OW Ruby ) and Platinum ( OW Sapphire ). A challenge can be completed by attaining 5000 qpoints for Gold or 10000 points for Platinum within 3 months. Earning rates are given further down


How do I Join the AA AAdvantage scheme

go to www.aa.com and you can sign up for free online


How do I sign up for the challenge

Phone AAdvantage Customer Service in the US on +1 817 799 2500 ( from Australia , replace the + with 0011 )


How do I earn qpoints

qpoints can only be earned by flying on One World Airlines and Alaska Airlines. Do be aware that qpoints are not the same as frequent flyer mileage that can be used for redeeming awards

Note Lan Argentina and Lan Dominica are not part of One World


When travelling in First Class, Business Class or BA World Traveller Plus 1.5 points is earned per mile flown.

Note no points earned on BA between UK and USA

For other discount fares please refer to this table

Where points are earned, there is a min point earning of 500

American Airlines

qpoints per - Fare Bases
flown mile

1.5 - Y B

1.0 - H K L M V W

0.5 - G N O* Q** S

( O class only eligable on US domestic Flights , Q is invalid on transatlantic flights )



Aer Lingus

Within Ireland

1.0 - Y H

Ireland to US

1.0 - Y H K

Ireland - UK excluding LHR

1.0 - Y B H

Ireland - Europe or LHR

1.0 - Y B H K



British Airways Excluding flights between UK and USA

1.5 - Y B

1.0 - H

0.25 - K L M N O R

0.125 - G Q S V


Cathay Pacific

1.5 - Y B

1.0 - H



Finnair

1.5 - Y B

1.0 - A H K M V

0,5 - G L N S Q O T W


Iberia

1.5 - R Y

0.3 - B H K M Q V

0.15 - G L N O S



Lan Excluding flights to or from Cuba

1.5 - B Y

1.0 - H K L M N V

0.5 - G N O Q S



Qantas Airways

1.5 - B Y

1.0 - H K W

0.5 - M V L R

0.25 - G O S


How do I know what class my ticket is booked in

The simplest is to phone the airline which you are travelling with and confirm. If you know the fare basis for your ticket, then the booking class will normally be the 1st character of the fare basis. For Qantas flights you may be able to find the booking class by going to http://www.qantas.com.au/regions/do/dyn/yourBooking and retrieving the booking information. This site is a bit hit or miss on whether a flight details will show the booking class

When travelling domestically on Qantas,

cheap red-e-deals book in the eligable class of O whilst the higher priced ones book in the ineligable class N

Super Savers book in S M V L or R

Flexi Savers book in K or W

Fully Flexible book in B or Y


How do I know what the distance of my trip will be

go to http://gc.kls2.com/ and put in the from and to points in ( e.g. for Sydney to Los Angeles enter either SYD-LAX or, if you do not know the airport codes, Sydney-Los Angeles.


I now know about qpoints but what redeemable miles will I earn

go to www.aa.com , then from menu on left select Aadvantage -> Partners & Mileage Programs -> Airlines and then click down into the appropriate airline

How long will my status last

Challenges can be timed to start on the 1st or 16th of a month and 3 months are allowed to complete the challenge

Start on 1st/16th of Jan/Feb/Mar/Apr/May or 1st June, then status will last until end of february the next year ( e.g. start on 1st June 2006 and status will last until end of february 2007 )

Start on or after 16th June, status will last till end of february 2 years time ( e.g start on 16th June 2006 and status will last until end of february 2008 )


What are the benefits of status

Please look at www.aa.com where the handbooks can be downloaded and check out www.oneworldalliance.com


How can I make sure that I get my points without unnecessary difficulty

Easy Method
--------------

1st of all, make sure that you put no frequent flyer number in the booking

When you have booked the flight, get the 6 character AMADEUS locator

Go to www.ba.com and select "Manage my booking" and then "Retrieve booking" from the list on the left. (It doesn't matter if is a Qantas flight , the BA MMB will do whats needed).

Put the reference number and name into the fields and retrieve the booking

On the right hand side list there will be a link to "Add frequent flyer number" . Select this

Select American Airlines from the drop down menu and fill in your AA Frequent Flyer number in the box

If you go to www.checkmytrip.com and check the booking, it should appear correctly ( as detailed further down )

NOTE: The link to Add the FF number will ONLY be available if no FF number has ever been put in the booking; if an FF number has been put in the booking this method cannot be used and the method below should be used.

This is the idea method since it does not reply on an agent knowing how to add AA FF numbers

Hard method
---------------


Make sure that you ONLY put the AA number into your booking. When booking a flight on QF or BA, you can check that it is in correctly. go to www.checkmytrip.com and look up your reservation using the booking reference number

When you get the details you should see something similar to

Traveler: MR MY NAME
Frequent Flyer: Qantas Airways - AAxxxxxx

when travelling on QF or

Traveler: MR MY NAME
Frequent Flyer: British Airways - AAxxxxxx


If you have an itinery with multiple carriers, there should be an entry for each airline flown

Do make sure that NO OTHER FF NUMBER appears in the booking

If you see an entry of format


Traveler: MR MY NAME
Frequent Flyer: American Airlines - AAxxxxxx

then phone QF/BA back and get them to remove the number and re-enter it properly


How can I check how I am doing

Log into your account at aa.com and go to view your miles. You will see in the mileage summary column a field where it says

YTD Elite Qualifying Points: n

When this crosses the 5000/10000 threshold, within a day you will see an additional entry in the Personal Information field saying

Status: PLATINUM
or
Status: GOLD

as appropriate

Note: If you embark on a challenge near the end of the year and be continuing into January, you will need to keep track yourself as the field is the Year To Date points and will reset to zero in january


I have completed the challenge - what now

In approximately 2 weeks time you will receive a new membership card and a benefit book from AA. Use the card when necessary to show your entitlement to the associated benefits ( e.g. lounge access )

But I am flying again before the card will arrive and so I want to get my benefits now?

Phone the local AA office ( check the aa site to find the local phone number ) and they can fax you a letter confirming your status which will hopefully deal with the short term issues


How do I ensure that I keep status

You will need to meet the normal requalifying requirements as detailed on aa.com. If starting challenge between Jan 1 and Jun, you will need to meet the requirements by the end of current year, otherwise after completing the challenge, you can rest till the new year starts in January

If I fail to meet platinum status requalification requirements, will my status be entirely dropped to nothing at renewal time

No. You will be dropped back down to gold

[NM]

Excellent work Dave. No Admin, can we please have this one made into a sticky! This is a great reference and I can see a lot of questions being answered by referring people to this post.

[MD]

How do I know what class my ticket is booked in

The simplest is to phone the airline which you are travelling with and confirm. If you know the fare basis for your ticket, then the booking class will normally be the 1st character of the fare basis

You can also see booking class for QF flights on "Manage My Bookings" on the Qantas website:

Status: Confirmed
Class: Economy (K) (sigh)
Flight Duration: 10h 40m

MD

[serfty]

Great Stuff Dave!

Soon we will need to start referring to you as "n² DSN". I'll leave it to Lindsay Wilson to adjudicate that one.

Some information about Qantas international Flights. The classes used vary somewhat from those for Qantas Domestic and some Red e-Deals are are booked into V class rather than N, O or Q.

For example, here is a link Clue Card for Flights between SIN/BKK and Oz: Australia to Singapore and Thailand Fare Structure.

For these international fares, it's the "Sale" fares that book into N/O/Q.

[tuapekastar]

Excellent work Dave. Should save a lot of re-posting of questions and answers.

I have noticed elsewhere there has been discussion re whether the time period for the challenges is 3 months or 90 days...some insist that it's 90 days. Excluding February, 3 months will only ever be 91 or 92 days, so it's hardly a big difference, but if your last qualifying flight is on day 91 or 92 and if you miss qualifying because of it that would be a big shame. :cry:

I have no idea which is correct (or if AA has a relaxed attitude toward it) but being a little paranoid about those things I would plump for completing it in 90 days.

Cheers

[BlacKnox]

When travelling domestically on Qantas,

cheap red-e-deals book in the eligable class of O whilst the higher priced ones book in the ineligable class N

Excellent Work Dave Noble. I know that QF O fares earn 50% while N fares are ineligible, yet is it true that N fares are the more expensive of the two? Doesn't make much (common) sense.

[Craigo]

Excellent Work Dave Noble. I know that QF O fares earn 50% while N fares are ineligible, yet is it true that N fares are the more expensive of the two? Doesn't make much (common) sense.

My recollection (and multi-star dsn will correct me if I'm wrong) is that QF swapped the classes for the web and phone red-e-deals. N class used to be the web-based fare (cheapest) and O the phone-based fare.

However, AA used to have O as the non-earning fare class and changed it to N to reflect the relative price structure at around the time QF swapped the codes.

[Dave Noble]

Excellent work Dave. Should save a lot of re-posting of questions and answers.

I have noticed elsewhere there has been discussion re whether the time period for the challenges is 3 months or 90 days...some insist that it's 90 days. Excluding February, 3 months will only ever be 91 or 92 days, so it's hardly a big difference, but if your last qualifying flight is on day 91 or 92 and if you miss qualifying because of it that would be a big shame. :cry:

I have no idea which is correct (or if AA has a relaxed attitude toward it) but being a little paranoid about those things I would plump for completing it in 90 days.

Cheers

if you start on the 1st of the month , you have until the final day of the month e.g. 1st July start date, allows you until the 30th September to complete ( 92 days ). if you start on the 16th of a month, you have until the 15th of the month 3 months later. I think that the use of 90 days by some staff is used since in nearly all cases 90 days is actually less than actual and avoids issues like people starting on 1st July and whining when they fail to get platinum when they take their final flight on the 1st october and saying that that is 3 months

The only problem is when starting on 1st February , since 3 months from 1st February is only 89 days

Dave

[tuapekastar]

if you start on the 1st of the month , you have until the final day of the month e.g. 1st July start date, allows you until the 30th September to complete ( 92 days ). if you start on the 16th of a month, you have until the 15th of the month 3 months later. I think that the use of 90 days by some staff is used since in nearly all cases 90 days is actually less than actual and avoids issues like people starting on 1st July and whining when they fail to get platinum when they take their final flight on the 1st october and saying that that is 3 months

The only problem is when starting on 1st February , since 3 months from 1st February is only 89 days

Dave

Thanks for the explanation Dave, and yes, that last point is a good one!

Cheers

[Deeruck]

Traveler: MR MY NAME
Frequent Flyer: American Airlines - AAxxxxxx

Can someone explain what a reference like this will do? Does the reference to American Airlines mean that they will use this FF number, and no other airlines will?