Targeted offer: Fast Track to AAdvantage Elite Status (Full Details)
By now, you’ve probably read about the targeted promotion from American that offers recipients an opportunity to qualify for AAdvantage Platinum and Executive Platinum status at reduced mileage levels.
As you might expect, news of the offer was first posted in a FlyerTalk forum thread. Thursday morning it became a bigger story when AJ from Live at a Lounge wrote about forum discussion.
I actually received the offer on Wednesday. I’m not sure why I was targeted, but I suspect it was because I’m a lapsed Platinum (I reduced my travel back in 2010 to spend more time with family and dropped to Gold last year) and I have a Business ExtrAA account linked to my AAdvantage account, so I buy a lot of air travel even if I’m not the one traveling.
I don’t know that for certain, but that’s my speculAAtion.
Back to the offer, here are the details:
Elite Status and Double Miles!
Dear [AAdvantage Geek],
At American Airlines, we value your business and want to see more
of you. That’s why we’re offering two exciting promotions, exclusively for you.
First, you can earn double American Airlines AAdvantage miles on all purchased, published fares for travel on American Airlines, American Eagle or the AmericanConnection carrier between February 8, 2012 and
May 31, 2012.
Second, we’re offering you the opportunity to qualify for AAdvantage Platinum or even AAdvantage Executive Platinum status at an accelerated rate.
Between February 8, 2012 and May 31, 2012, simply fly the required number of base miles as outlined below on American Airlines, American Eagle or the AmericanConnection carrier. Elite-status membership earned through this special promotion will be valid through February 28, 2013.
We know you’ll appreciate the unique privileges of AAdvantage Platinum or AAdvantage Executive Platinum status, including:
AAdvantage Platinum
72 hour upgrade window
100% mileage bonus on select elite-qualifying flights
Priority Baggage Delivery
AAdvantage Executive Platinum
Unlimited complimentary upgrades confirmed at 100 hours pior to departure (subject to availability)**
Eight (8) one-way Systemwide Upgrades
Expanded MileSAAver award availability for you and one companion
Waived ticketing service charges and AAdvantage change and reinstatement charges
For complete details on all AAdvantage elite-status benefits, visit www.aa.com/elitebenefits
Register for this promotion using the Promotion Code HVCAA prior to travel and by 11:59pm CT on February 29, 2012.
This is an exclusive offer only for members who receive this email from American Airlines and register online to participate.
While it’s a really great promotion, I had some questions about the offer before I registered.
Status earned in 2012 with elite qualifying miles, points, or segments, expires in February 2014, but status that’s earned through this promotion expires in February of 2013. My questions:
• Would miles earned during the promotion count toward the status for 2013?
• If I qualified for Executive Platinum under this fast track offer and received the 8 systemwide upgrades, would I receive 8 more if I earned EXP the hard way? (I’m an optimist)
I have a really helpful contact on the AA communications team and on occasion, when I have questions about a promotion or offer, I turn to her for clarification.
So after I received the offer, I sent her an email with my questions. She took it to the AAdvantage team, and here’s her response:
Elite qualifying miles earned now count towards elite status membership valid thru Feb 2014 and Systemwide Upgrades are earned each time a member qualifies or re-qualifies for AAdvantage Executive Platinum status.
Good News
If you received the offer and sign up for the promotion, it won’t impact your elite status for next year. A reminder about tracking your progress, only base miles count. Not elite qualifying miles. So the double elite qualifying miles offers won’t help you with this promotion (they still count though for your 2013 status).
Bad News
If you didn’t receive the offer, my contact specifically mentioned that they are verifying the eligibility of anyone that registers for the offer. She was aware of the thread over at FlyerTalk. Confirmation of registration isn’t the same thing as confirmation that you’re eligible. So don’t go booking mileage runs with the expectation that you’ll qualify for this promotion.
I decided to sign up for the offer. I’ve got a bunch of travel lined up the next couple of months, so EXP status is reachable, but probably only temporary.
I doubt that I’ll finish the year with more than 60-75,000 elite qualifying miles, so for me, this may be my only chance to FLY LIKE MIKE!
Sweet offer. I registered my wife & I the promo earlier!
Thanks for the information, you saved me from trying this.
Thanks for getting the inside scoop. I’ll be linking your post to mine.
Are they really checking? I think it would be hard for them to know who got emails and signed up and who didn’t get an email and signed up anyway…could their programmers really be that good?
Hi JK,
Programmatically it’s an easy task to filter registrations. To help visualize a programmer’s solution, they’d instruct the software to compare AAdvantage accounts in Column A (people that registered) against AAdvantage accounts in Column B (people that were targeted), if A doesn’t match B, generate rejection. If Column A matches Column B, apply bonus miles formula.
But it never hurts to try:-)
Thanks for commenting!
AARG! Not targeted…bummer!
Not only was I NOT targeted, but I just signed up for a Platinum Challenge on Thursday, because I’ll slamdunk it later this month with a JFK>HKG round-trip. So thrilled that other people are getting this offered to them for free, while I just blew a non-refundable $200. Grrrrrrr…..soooo aggravated. This is my love/hate relationship with American in a nutshell.
Hi Clive – The PLT Challenge is a much better deal. Status earned through this offer is only good till February 2013. After you finish your Challenge, you’ll have status until 2014.
I’d much rather earn status early in 2012 and not have to worry about it for the rest of the year.
Good luck chasing Platinum and thanks for reading!
I thought PLT challenges started before June 16 only earned the status through Feb of the next year (2013).
I was told on the phone that my challenge would only net me PLT status through the end of next February.
@ Clive and AAguy – You’re both right and I was wrong. I forgot about that rule.
I understand that the Challenge is supposed to be a head start on status, but it does seem unfair that someone participating during the first half of year earns ≤12 months of status, while someone taking the Challenge in July gets 18 months.
Thanks for the correction and thanks for reading!