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A friend of mine was offered free Gold Status on American Airlines by email.

How did he get so lucky? Can you repeat it?

My friend has flown 3,500 paid miles over nine segments on American this year. But with his free instant Gold status, he’ll have the same status as folks who have flown 25,000 miles this year on American.

His new status will last for about four months. If during that time, he flies 6,000 elite-qualifying miles or points, he’ll extend the status through February 28, 2015.

It seems like he hit the status lottery. He didn’t do anything special, but he was rewarded. He doesn’t get top-tier status (he didn’t hit Powerball), but he won something (Pick 3?). Here are the benefits he’ll receive as an American Airlines Gold elite.

There are several threads on FlyerTalk about people receiving similar emails. Maybe you can discern a pattern better than I can to figure out how to receive the offer.

Check out these two threads in particular for data points:

Were you lucky enough to get free AA status recently? Do you plan to meet the challenge amount to maintain the status?