Didn’t qualify for AA Executive Platinum status for 2015? There may be hope!

If you were an American Airlines Executive Platinum in 2014, but didn’t quite meet the requirements for the same status for 2015, there may be hope for you.

Several previous Executive Platinums are reporting that they’ve been offered to regain their status, but, at a catch.

It looks like they are being offered a challenge where, starting March 1, if they earn 25,000 Elite Qualifying Points within 90 days, they’ll regain Executive Platinum through February of 2016. This has been the same challenge that’s been offered previously to United 1Ks wanting to challenge into the AAdvantage program, so it’s nothing new, but another tactic American appears to be using to woo back their most loyal flyers, who either didn’t buy up to EXP, or weren’t offered a complimentary bump. It’s important to note that it looks like these folks will lose their status between the time their current status runs out, and the time they are able to cross over the 25,000 EQP mark.

Looking at the AAdvantage program, there is typically three types of challenges:

• AAdvantage Gold for $100 co-pay, where you earn 5,000 EQPs within 90 days.
• AAdvantage Platinum for $200 co-pay, where you earn 10,000 EQPs within 90 days.
• Executive Platinum, which you are not able to access publicly, where you earn 10,000 EQPs within 90 days. This has been offered to select 1Ks wanting to challenge in, though hasn’t been offered to Delta elites.

Remember, this specific challenge is based on points and not miles. So, it’s based on spending. An Elite Qualifying Point is determined based on how much you paid for the ticket, which is noted by the fare letter.

• Earn 1.5 points per mile when the purchased fare on your American Airlines ticket is booked in one of these booking codes: A F P D I J B Y
• Earn 1.0 point per mile for these AA booking codes: H K L M V W
• Earn .5 points per mile for these AA booking codes: G N Q S O

While this will come at an expense for elites loosing the status, it’s actually a rather nice way to pick it back up – though, it will come at a cost, since you’ll be forced to pay for higher tickets in the beginning as you work towards 25,000 points.

If you’re going to lose your EXP status, and think you’ve come close, it might be worth a call into AAdvantage customer service to see if they can offer you this challenge.