AAdvantage Elite Fast Track How-To
I know a lot of you were accepted into the AAdvantage Elite Fast Track and have a lot of questions. For that reason I am creating this post to answer some of the more frequently asked questions and to help you find success in searching for flights to complete the fast track.
All About EQPs
For the version of the challenge I linked to here, you must earn Elite Qualifying Points. The amount of points you earn is based on the code of the fare you purchase. The EQPs are calculated by mutiplying the distance flown by the EQP fare multiplier.
You can find the full list of fares and multipliers for AA flights here and for partner flights here. Unfortunately you will find the cheapest coach fares will only earn .5 EQPs per miles flown. The key is to find cheap fares that earn 1 EQP per mile or cheap premium cabin fares that earn 1.5 EQPs per mile flown. (Note: American has a bonus right now on premium flights, but bonus EQPs don’t count towards this fast track per the terms.)
Calculating Distance
Now that you know how EQPs are calculated, you have to figure out how far each flight is. Thankfully there is an incredibly accurate tool called Great Circle Mapper. Simply enter in your route and it will calculate the distance.
For example if you want to know how many miles LAS-JFK roundtrip is then you would search for LAS-JFK-LAS. Throw in a stopover in DFW and it looks like this: LAS-DFW-JFK-DFW-LAS. Simple and it works very well. I have always found the results to be very accurate as well.
Find Cheap Fares
There are a few great resources for finding cheap mileage runs or fares. Most of these resources are going to be looking at the EQMs earned and not EQPs, so make sure to find the fare code and figure out how it will work for you. You are almost always going to want to find fares that earn more than .5 EQPs per mile.
Some of my favorite resources for finding cheap flight deals are:
- The Flight Deal
- Flyertalk Mileage Run Forums
- Secret Flying
Searching for Flights
Two of my favorite ways of searching for flights are the ITA Matrix and Google Flights. ITA gives you much more flexibility but is slower while Google Flights works faster but doesn’t have as many complex options for searching.
Great resources on these tools:
Conclusion
While I can’t help to search for deals and find flights for you, hopefully these tools will help you find the perfect flights to complete the fast track. If I find any amazing deals I will make sure to share them here on the blog and if you find great airfares feel free to send them my way. After all I’m in this with you! Do you have more questions? Feel free to leave them in the comments!
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[…] morning I am flying to Panama (working towards AA Exec Plat as part of the Elite Fast Track) and then on to Havana (Booked with Lifemiles & Singapore Krisflyer). I do have some cool […]
Found a BA flight from LHR-LAX in November 1 way in discount economy and the return in premium economy for £700 (~$1100) which is going to yield over 10,000 EQPs and get me to Platinum. Seems like a pretty good deal for a flight I was planning to take anyway with economy fares hovering around $800. With no plans for any additional flying before the end of the year I think EP is out of reach.
[…] Related: AA Elite Fast Track FAQ – How to Calculate the Distance & EQPs, Where to find Deals &… […]
[…] AA Elite Fast Track FAQ – How to Calculate Distance & EQPs, Where to Find Deals & How to S… – Everything you need to know to search and find great fares to take advantage of the recent AA elite fast track opportunity. […]
I found 25,000 eqp for less than $1,800 flying business class in nice planes and leaving out of Austin. I questioned myself and waited a day. Now it is 4x the price. I think I happened upon a big mistake fare. It was just 2 RT tickets.
Is this as good as it seemed or should I be looking for something lower?
Shawn, thanks for the post. I appreciate your attentiveness to the readers… People asked for advice when you first posted about the challenge and now this explanation post in a couple of days.
My pleasure. Glad to help!
I wonder if your AAdvantage account now shows updated tier goal(s) of 5K, 9K, and 25K respectively for Gold, Plat and ExPlat? Mine still shows 25K for a tier goal of Gold. Please let me know.
Thanks…
No the website still shows as normal. As far as I can tell there isn’t way to see the promotion when logging in.
Thank you very much. I was searching today for these tools. I might see how far I can go.
I have another question – Hubby didn’t get the challenge because he has a lifetime Executive Platinum from years ago reaching 1 million miles on an AA Citibank card before all this points and miles stuff became a thing. We can’t figure out what benefits he actually gets. His AA profile says “Platinum.” I know he doesn’t get the perks as a current Executive Platinum, but I can’t find a list of what he does get. We use the priority check-in desk and board the plane early. An agent in Venice told him he gets into the Marco Polo lounge with his status (I knew this wasn’t true I had our Priority Pass cards with me. Those got us in.)
Thanks for this!