Several weeks ago, I was debating cancelling my trip to Trinidad Tobago and mileage-running instead on American Airlines during their Double Elite Qualifying Promotion in January. The stars lined up for the latter to be my decision.

First, I got called on personal business during my proposed vacation so I had to switch out my ticket to head for Los Angeles. Katy got to keep her ticket cost in the form of a eticket that’s good for one year with a $150 change fee. Secondly, I got word from the OneWorld MegaDO folks that the international portion of the trip would, indeed, count for DEQM (Double Elite Qualifying Miles). The trip from JFK-LHR-DFW will add a nice chunk to my 2013 qualification. The distance is 8201 miles or 16,402 with the double. I forgot to ask if the class of service bonus will exist as I booked it in business. With that little head start I am off and running.

My other January doubles are SAV-DFW-LAX and back for 4320, doubled to 8640 miles. After this trip I will qualify for Executive Platinum for the remainder of 2012 from the MegaDO challenge. My new status posted early this morning although one leg is missing and I don’t see any upgrades yet. I hope I won’t need my five hundred mile stickers for the upcoming mileage runs. I’d like to be able to save those for friends and family now. Any old time Exec Plats want to chime I on how my new status will be handled doe this weeks upcoming flights? Do I need to call somebody to have my 500 miler requests removed? Simple changeover issues I’m sure.

Later on in the month I’m off to San Francisco to meet with the people from Chase Bank. I plan on congratulating them on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and suggesting they follow up with another winner by creating a Chase Sapphire Preferred Business card. Wouldn’t that be a nice addition? That routing is a simple SAV-DFW-SFO and return for 4780 miles, doubled to 9560 EQM. And of course I have my return from the OneWorld MegaDO booked on American for 2160 miles, or 4320 EQM with the double.

So before the mileage run I have approximately 38,922 towards re-qualifying for Exec Plat for 2013. I still need 61,078 miles. What better way to shorten the gap but a couple of Double EQM mileage runs?

Here is what I booked:

Day 1 SAV-DFW-LAX-MIA and sleep at the Hilton at the Miami airport. Total haul is 4502 miles, double to 9004 EQM. Total now YTD (year to date) is 47,926.

Day 2 and 1/2  MIA-SFO-LAX-SFO-MIA arriving at 5:25 a.m. on Day 3. The miles — 6171 — with the 500 minimum as a Platinum double to 12,343 and my new total (and sore butt) comes to 60,269.

Day 3  After the redeye it’s an easy day just back out to Los Angeles and a good night’s sleep and shower. The routing is MIA-SFO-LAX for 3085, doubled to 6171 for a new total of 66,440.

Day 4 I’m headed home with the simple routing of LAX-DFW-SAV for another 2160 miles, doubled to 4320 and a grand total of 70,760 Elite Qualifying Miles by the end of January 2012. I’ll easily knock out the last 30K throughout the rest of the year to qualify for Executive Platinum through February 2014.

The cost was $195 for each one way SAV-LAX and $139 each one way for the LAX-SFO-MIA. Plus taxes on all the combinations, of course. My first ticket was multi-city SAV-DFW-LAX-MIA, second ticket was round-trip MIA-SFO-LAX, and third and fourth tickets MIA-SFO-LAX and LAX-DFW-SAV were one-ways. It was about $1000 total, plus I need to book two nights at hotels. For my $1000, I got 31,000 Elite Qualifying Miles or about 3.2 cents each (fair, not great, with a double EQM). But I also picked up 31,000 revenue miles as well as a Platinum/Executive Platinum in which I get two revenue miles per mile flown.

And, I have virtually assured myself of top tier status until February 2014. With the status comes eight upgrades per year good anywhere American flies on any coach fare. Two years worth is 16 upgrades on international itineraries. I’ll take that — sore butt and all!