I’m not ashamed to admit it. I travel obsessively, am faithful to one airline, American, and know their frequent flyer program like a script. Last year when I made Executive Platinum, the highest level of elite status for the first time, you would have thought I’d won the lottery. I was already in the Million Mile club for earning over one million miles since my enrollment in their program, and a prime benefit of that is that I am gold status for life. Reaching gold, platinum or executive platinum elite status has some great perks like not paying for checked bags, potential upgrades to first or business, earning additional miles on every flight, better seat selection, and of course, being able to board first so that you get the precious overhead space for your carry on.While elite status is too good to be true there is a catch – you have to re-qualify every year. To achieve gold status on American you need to actually fly 25,000 miles, for platinum, 50,000 miles, and for the big cahuna, executive platinum, you need to rack up a whopping 100,000 in a year. Or do you? Maybe not, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
American’s executive platinum level is as good as it gets with frequent flyer programs. With AA’s first class lounge for example, which costs additional, you pay a reduced rate for membership based on your status. The higher the status the less you have to pay. Another great benefit is that upgrades are awarded before everyone else at no charge and you are entitled to eight internationally, which are excluded at lower elite levels and with these there’s access to a more exclusive set of lounges and waived ticketing fees.
After earning executive platinum in 2010, I was hooked like a child with a lollypop, who would not let it be taken away. So guess what? In 2010, I flew and flew and flew in order to re-qualify for 2011. No surprise, right? Flying is already pretty stressful now, so it’s easy to imagine the level of stress this extra burden of making-up miles added.
Flying 100,000 air miles in one year is no easy task so I flew a lot to Miami (that was easy, I have an office there), twice to Hawaii via Los Angeles (you get extra miles for stopping over), and endless long-haul destinations like Brazil, Barbados, and northern Greece via London, no less. You get the picture. I was cranking but suddenly it was October and I was still more than 25,000 miles short with only eleven weeks to go. So, I planned four more round trips to Miami, a trip to Panama and the Dominican Republic (all on sale) and still another trip to London. Time was running out. Oh my god, would I make it? Then I learned the trick.
The Trick
While I was gabbing on the phone one night with the executive platinum desk, the special service just for that status (another perk), one very friendly and knowledgeable agent casually mentioned a special promotion. Promotions are usually bonuses for flying new routes or routes where they are trying to increase passenger load. There are two kinds: one that awards extra frequent flyer miles (double or triple) and one that awards extra elite qualifying miles. I quickly realized that this is what I needed to put me over the 100 mark.
The promotion I registered for gave me triple miles and double elite qualifying miles. What was the catch? All I had to do was fly round trip to London via Raleigh/Durham from to qualify. Oh, by the way, I live in New York City so all I had to do was get my carcass down to North Carolina. Easy, huh? Don’t ask me … for me an hour flight is easier than a subway ride. And remember, I get to hang with all the super luminaries and weirdos like myself. This would drop over 15,000 elite miles into my account before the Miami and Panama jaunts. Hooray! You got it; I’m there – Executive Platinum for another year.
Take my advice and search www.aa.com for these special promotions. You may only need to fly to Cincinnati before taking off for Los Angeles but when it’s looking like you’re heading southeast to reach northwest, don’t come crying to me.