Many airline's frequent flier programs offer challenge programs that let you try to hit a certain amount of miles in a short amount of time to reach elite levels faster. For example, earlier this year I participated in US Airways challenge program to try and go from Gold status to Platinum mid year. It takes 90 legs in a year to get to Platinum status but I did it while only having around 30 at the time. The terms of their challenge program were that I had to fly 30 legs in 3 months. So I waited till I had a 3 month window when I would be on the road a ton and went for it and made it. That put me at Platinum status for the rest of the year even though at that point I only had 60 legs for the year, 30 short of actual Platinum status.
If you had ever considered doing this, now is the time. I can tell you first hand that with the economy doing what it is, many of businesses have cut their travel budgets. This means less people are traveling and less people are buying expensive business & first class tickets. How does that affect you? Well if your airline does automatic upgrades if there are open seats, this means the higher you are, the more you will get upgraded. So if you can do a challenge program, by all means jump on it, you will be one step ahead of everyone else hoping to get upgraded.
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