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Many of us travelers work all year to get elite status — spending thousands of dollars, doing year-end mileage runs or even just paying airlines large sums to maintain status. But, sometimes, airlines will simply offer members status — for free.
Friday afternoon, we received reports from many TPG readers that they received an email from American Airlines offering completely free elite status with “no strings attached.” The offers are anywhere from bottom-tier Gold to Platinum Pro — which typically requires 75,000 miles of flying and 9,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars:
So far, all of the offers we have seen have the following terms:
- Sign up by February 1, 2018.
- Complimentary status runs through May 25, 2018.
You can extend that status through January 31, 2019 by completing a free challenge:
- Platinum: To extend your elite benefits through January 31, 2019, earn 12,500 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) and $2,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) on American or other eligible airlines for travel between the date you register and May 25, 2018.
- Platinum Pro: To extend your elite benefits through January 31, 2019, earn 20,000 Elite Qualifying Miles (EQMs) and $3,000 Elite Qualifying Dollars (EQDs) on American or other eligible airlines for travel between the date you register and May 25, 2018.
Along with the free status, the carrier is offering free 500-mile upgrades — the airline’s upgrade system for North American and Caribbean flights. Those targeted for Gold will get 10 upgrades, while Platinums will get 20 certificates. There’s no offer of 500-mile upgrades for those targeted for Platinum Pro, as these elites get unlimited complimentary upgrades on these routes.
If you’re targeted for one of these offers, you should have received an email — check the account associated with your AA account. The email will direct you to the landing page for the offer, where you’ll log-in to register for the promotion. If you want to shortcut the process, you can try applying the following registration codes to your AAdvantage account:
We don’t know AA’s methodology behind these targeted offers, but there’s a clue from TPG reader Allison H. She noted that she “flew about 20,000 miles on AA last year, mostly between January and March” before quitting American for another airline. She was offered Platinum status from AA, so it seems likely that the airline extrapolated her 20,000 miles across the year to figure she’s at least a 50,000-mile flyer and offered her this free status to entice her to be loyal to AA in 2018.
Source: thepointsguy.com