Platinum, baby

So. My bro tipped me off to this thing that airlines don't tell you about. It's a way to make elite status fast. If you wanted to make platinum on AA normally, you'd have to fly 50,000 miles in a year. Impossible, I hear you say! But, if you sign up for something called the platinum challenge, you can get platinum status if you fly 20,000 miles within 90 days -- ok, really, it's 10,000 qualifying points, at .5 of those per mile flown, if you fly on economy tickets. Now that's more like it! If I go to Brazil this fall... which I might... I'm definitely going to do this. You need to call them and ask them to sign you up, and they don't advertise it anywhere.

They have it for gold too, for 5,000 q-points in 90 days. But I want to go for platinum if I can. Two frequent-flyer miles earned for every mile flown, first-class check-in and security, and use of the fancy lounges if I'm traveling internationally. I always travel internationally. Dood.