Need advice from experienced frequent flyers: AA's Gold challenge

I am booked round trip ORD-LHR on American and LHR-DEL (India) on
British, which is an AA partner. I was thinking of taking this
opportunity to register for AA's gold/platinum challenge and earn a few
extra miles during the coming year.

However, I can't decide if I'll have enough "points" for platinum, or
if I should be content with gold. From all my reservation info, I can't
figure out what fare class I am traveling in, and just how many miles
or "points" will I receive? Apparently you don't always get one mile
for a mile flown, nor one point for a mile earned!

Any idea where to find this info? Or should I play safe and just sign
up for gold? Thanks.

RPS wrote:

I am booked round trip ORD-LHR on American and LHR-DEL (India) on
British, which is an AA partner. I was thinking of taking this
opportunity to register for AA's gold/platinum challenge and earn a few
extra miles during the coming year.

However, I can't decide if I'll have enough "points" for platinum, or
if I should be content with gold. From all my reservation info, I can't
figure out what fare class I am traveling in, and just how many miles
or "points" will I receive? Apparently you don't always get one mile
for a mile flown, nor one point for a mile earned!

Any idea where to find this info? Or should I play safe and just sign
up for gold? Thanks.

Problem: New in 2007, Elite Qualifying Points for challenges MUST be on
AA metal with AA flight numbers. This is a change from previous years.

You need 5000 elite qualifying points in 3 months for the GOLD chalenge
and 10000 for the Platinum. The number of points per mile flown varies.
A very much discounted ticket from ORD-LHR might get you 1/2 point per
mile. Information on EQP's is at aa.com. There is also a lot of
challenge information at Flyertalk.com. You will probably earn less
than 1 EQP per mile on the BA flights. It is possible that you might
earn nothng. Have you considered flying AA all of the way to India?

RPS wrote:

I am booked round trip ORD-LHR on American and LHR-DEL (India) on
British, which is an AA partner. I was thinking of taking this
opportunity to register for AA's gold/platinum challenge and earn a few
extra miles during the coming year.

However, I can't decide if I'll have enough "points" for platinum, or
if I should be content with gold. From all my reservation info, I can't
figure out what fare class I am traveling in, and just how many miles
or "points" will I receive? Apparently you don't always get one mile
for a mile flown, nor one point for a mile earned!

Any idea where to find this info? Or should I play safe and just sign
up for gold? Thanks.

Problem: New in 2007, Elite Qualifying Points for challenges MUST be on
AA metal with AA flight numbers. This is a change from previous years.

You need 5000 elite qualifying points in 3 months for the GOLD chalenge
and 10000 for the Platinum. The number of points per mile flown varies.
A very much discounted ticket from ORD-LHR might get you 1/2 point per
mile. Information on EQP's is at aa.com. There is also a lot of
challenge information at Flyertalk.com. You will probably earn less
than 1 EQP per mile on the BA flights. It is possible that you might
earn nothng. Have you considered flying AA all of the way to India?

Mike Hunt postmaster@localhost wrote:

Problem: New in 2007, Elite Qualifying Points for challenges MUST be on
AA metal with AA flight numbers. This is a change from previous years.

Darn. Someone else also told me you must have at least 4 AA segments.
If so just ORD-LHR round trip is not enough. (Although if it gave me
enough miles, I suppose I could fly some cheapo $29 destination just to
add segments.)

Anyway, assuming the 4 segment rule is correct, do they count from when
the challenge began, or previous year, or some other formula?

Have you considered flying AA all of the way to India?

This time I can't. But AA has nice ORD-DEL nonstop, which I hope to use
in future. So if I miss this chance at the challenge, there will be
others.

RPS wrote:

Mike Hunt postmaster@localhost wrote:


Problem: New in 2007, Elite Qualifying Points for challenges MUST be on
AA metal with AA flight numbers. This is a change from previous years.


Darn. Someone else also told me you must have at least 4 AA segments.
If so just ORD-LHR round trip is not enough. (Although if it gave me
enough miles, I suppose I could fly some cheapo $29 destination just to
add segments.)

Anyway, assuming the 4 segment rule is correct, do they count from when
the challenge began, or previous year, or some other formula?

I thought you needed 4 segments for regular qualification.
I thought the challenge just required 5000 Elite Qualifying Points.

One short phone call to AA would probably confirm this.