ACHIEVE ELITE WITH AMERICAN SOONER

Expiration Date – December 31, 2016

The American Airlines 2016 Elite status challenge provides an opportunity to achieve Elite status with AAdvantage sooner and for AA Gold and Platinum Elite status you aren’t even required to hold Elite status with a competitor to participate.

The AAdvantage Gold and Platinum status challenge requires you to simply sign up, pay and earn Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs). And United Mileage Plus 1k flyers have a chance to achieve AA’s Executive Platinum status by earning EQMs with no payment required!

We suggest you review the AAdvantage miles benefits page to clearly understand all of the benefits you’ll enjoy at each AAdvantage Elite status level and to review trvlvip’s informative overview of the 2016 AA program.

Here are the status challenge requirements to be completed anytime in 2016 and within 90 days of registration to enjoy AA Elite benefits through February 2017:

• Gold: Earn 7,000 EQMs and pay a $120 fee (Gold AA benefits will be awarded upon successful completion of the challenge)

• Platinum: Earn 12,500 EQMs and pay a $200 fee (Platinum AA benefits will be awarded upon successful completion of the challenge)

• Executive Platinum (only for United MileagePlus 1k members): Earn 35,000 EQMs with no fee payment required (Executive Platinum AA status will be awarded immediately)

EQMs for each challenge are earned only on flights marketed by American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines and Qantas.

For paid flights you will earn:

• 3 EQMs for each mile flown on Full-Fare First/Business Class

• 2 EQMs for Discount First/Business Class

• 1.5 EQMs for Full-Fare Economy

• 1 EQM for Discount Economy

To participate, you will need to call American AAdvantage at 888-697-5636 to request enrollment.

American Airlines is quite flexible and has typically allowed multiple attempts at completing their status challenge, while United only allows participation in their status match challenge once every five years and Delta only allows participation once in a lifetime!

The Wrap-Up:

If you’d like an easier way to Elite status with American Airlines and can meet the requirements, a status challenge makes a lot of sense.

If you succeed and are able to fly with AA in great comfort and style sooner, we’d love a nice note on Facebook and Twitter and please share this Perk with anyone you know who is considering a loyalty switch to American!

If you haven’t already, sign-up for complimentary alerts so you never miss an important TRVLVIP Perk or Tip about American Airlines.

We learned about this offer from flyertalk and no offer page exists for this challenge so we’ve linked you to the AAdvantage Elite status benefits page.