The post in which I revel in becoming Executive Platinum

Just checked my account.

A few hours ago, it said:

YTD Elite Qualifying Miles 99,836

Now it says:

YTD Elite Qualifying Miles 102,311

I now have Executive Platinum status.

Words of advice on achieving new status on AA:

1. If you have reservations for future flights that were ticketed before you achieved your new status, call the appropriate AA line (GLD, PLT, or the EXP desk) and ask them to update your reservations to reflect your new AAdvantage status. This way, your boarding pass will show your new status, you'll be properly queued for an upgrade, etc.

As the agent on the phone told me when I called a few minutes ago, "Our system is supposed to do this automatically, but often it doesn't. Thanks for calling."

2. If you're going from PLT to EXP, and you use 500-mile upgrade "stickers" to upgrade yourself on any flight after your qualifying flight (the one that puts you over 100,000 miles), then AA will refund those stickers to your account.

In other words, I flew on AA flt. 30 LAX-JFK on Wednesday night, arriving in JFK on Thursday morning. That flight technically put me over 100,000 EQM. But when I flew back to LAX on Thursday evening, my earlier flight hadn't posted, so as far as anyone at AA was concerned I was still PLT, not EXP. As a result, I needed to use 5 500-mile stickers for my upgrade on that flight.

Once the miles posted, however, AA's computers showed that I'd become EXP on Wednesday, October 7 (because that's when I flew). So they refunded my 5 stickers that I used on the flight back to LAX. I just called and asked, and the agent at the EXP desk made it happen. Sure, I don't need those stickers anymore for my own upgrades... but even EXPs need to use them when upgrading a companion who isn't EXP (like, for example, my wife).