AA Challenge Run

Hi all !

As a primarily DCA flyer and in anticipation of new options out of DCA following the US-AA merger, I'm thinking of switching allegiance from *G to AA Plat. My regular business travel is to ORD, SFO, LGA. I'd optimally like to fast track myself beginning of next year by doing the plat challenge for 10k EQP at around 6-8 CPM. If possible I'd like to do this trip in one go in Jan/Feb either through some brutal 20k MR in discount economy or a 10k in K,W but I wouldn't mind doing say 2 trips max. Any ideas or thoughts? Thanks in advance!

 

Your best bet will be PEK / PVG from BWI. Depending on routing it will be anywhere from 14 - 18K or more with a routing like BWI-JFK-LAX-PVG-LAX-JFK-BWI would be 18.2k. With a sale, they can be had for ~$800. They are usually in O or N. Most transpac sales fares are for Monday - Thursday departures. So you will need to factor in time off from work. As for the rest, can be done with a simple domestic fare.

As for 6-8 Cents Per Point, probably do-able. Thought there hasn't been too many under 4 cent EQM fares or under 8 cent EQP fares this year.

 

Thanks very much for the advice! I actually just booked a brutal MR from DCA. I am doing DCA-DFW-LHR-JNB-LHR-DFW-DCA mid-January with a 12h layover in London where I will hopefully meet a few friends for a few hours. I managed to get the itinerary priced out at 1022 all-in @ 4.4 CPM so not too far off a PEK/PVG trip (though that wouldn't be including the visa in the case you weren't flying out via another country).

My one question is... for AA at what point do you get the bonus redeemable miles as an elite. As in, I will be technically crossing the 20k EQP threshold mid-flight on the return LHR-DFW flight so will that flight get the 100% plat bonus or the DFW-DCA leg after? Or worse, does it start after the entire itinerary is completed? Thanks!

 

In our experience, AA has always given the elite bonus starting your qualifying leg for normal elite qualifying. We haven't done in a challenge in over 10 years, so can't comment whether that's true for challenges.

 

Looking for segment run from dfw on aa in December.

 

Starting a segment run from AUS would be cheaper than DFW. The cheapest that we see is AUS-DFW-FLL for $240 - at $60/segment, not exactly the cheapest. But time is short and not a lot of options.

Can be done on December 10th, 11th, 12th, 16th or 17th.

If AUS is problematic and you have to start from DFW, MSY or LAS at ~$100/segment are the cheap options that we see at the moment. For MSY, December 16th, 17th, 19th, 23rd, 24th. If you fly the 25th, it's $158 or $79/segment. For LAS, we see 17th, 18th and 23rd.

 

Hello All,

Looking to do a MR from ORD. Need to get approx 12K miles to requalify for EP status. Any suggestions.

Thank you all in advance

 

What are your constraints?
1. Only weekend?
2. Only domestic?
3. Same day?
4. International?

 

You can find cheap flights to PVG. We are doing a run later today from LAX to PVG via ORD.

 

Hello, I can fly anytime including International

 

There's not many cheap AA options at the moment (and from what we have seen so far, most sales are now pretty much for January onward travel) -- but if you don't mind positioning to Newark and assuming you have a Chinese Visa, you can get this out of the way by this weekend. The below is the easy option -- if you go on ITA, enter aa+ and use a date range of 0-1, there's some with more connections for ~$150 cheaper. With this, on the return, you can go home from Chicago, so only one positioning flight. Everything from major gateways that we checked become very expensive after Mid-December.

DETAILS: Newark/Shanghai
From http://matrix.itasoftware.com

ITINERARY

Newark (EWR) to Shanghai (PVG) - Fri, Dec 6

American Airlines Inc. 4295 Dep: 6:00AM Arr: 7:30AM 2h 30m Embraer RJ-175 Coach (V)
OPERATED BY REPUBLIC AIRLINES AS AMERICAN EAGLE
Layover in ORD 3h 5m
American Airlines Inc. 289 Dep: 10:35AM Arr: 3:05PM 14h 30m Boeing 777 Coach (V)
Sat, Dec 7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shanghai (PVG) to Newark (EWR) - Sat, Dec 7

American Airlines Inc. 288 Dep: 6:00PM Arr: 5:35PM 13h 35m Boeing 777 Coach (Q)
Layover in ORD 1h 25m
American Airlines Inc. 4230 Dep: 7:00PM Arr: 9:55PM 1h 55m Embraer RJ-175 Coach (Q)
OPERATED BY REPUBLIC AIRLINES AS AMERICAN EAGLE


FARE AND BOOKING DETAILS

Provide this information to a travel agent to help them match the fares found.
Make sure to provide the exact booking and fare codes shown.

Fare 1: Carrier AA VLE0C4D1 EWR to SHA $475.00
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code V
Covers EWR-ORD (Economy), ORD-PVG (Economy)

Fare 2: Carrier AA QKE0C8D1 SHA to EWR $280.00
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code Q
Covers PVG-ORD (Economy), ORD-EWR (Economy)

AA YR surcharge (YR) $358.00
US International Departure Tax (US) $17.20
US September 11th Security Fee (AY) $7.50
US Passenger Facility Charge (XF) $13.50
USDA APHIS Fee (XA) $5.00
US Immigration Fee (XY) $7.00
US Customs Fee (YC) $5.50
People's Republic of China Airport Fee (CN) $14.80
US International Arrival Tax (US) $17.20

Subtotal per passenger $1,200.70
Number of passengers x1

Total airfare & taxes $1,200.70

 

Need 6,500 EQP to get to Exec Platinum. Starting in PHX. International is OK too but willing to make some cross country runs if the price is right.