fly 5000 elite qualifying points (on some fares its .5 for mile most fares it is 1:1) in 3 months and you become gold. and 10,000 in 3 months you become plat.
now they change which chalenge you are going for. back then if you got 9000 points in 3 months you would not get gold (unless you took on the gold chalenge) basicly you were stuck with the chalenge you took, now you can change it