Ben at One Mile at a Time points to a new US Airways promotion, “Hop, Skip, and Jump for Preferred Status“. And unbelievaby, no registration is required.

The promotion offers the possibility of making Chairmans Preferred status from scratch in as little as 16 segments. But they’re not really mileage-runable.

Book and travel between July 7 and October 10, and flights to, from, or between any of 8 “regions” as well as flights on the US Airways Shuttle and flights on one of 11 new routes each count as a promotion credit.

Four credits will bump you a status level. Eight credits will bump you two status levels. Twelve credits, three levels. And Sixteen credits, four levels.

So a Silver Preferred member who flies an East Coast flight, a West Coast flight, takes a Shuttle flight between Boston and New York, and flies Boston to Pittsburgh Plattsburgh, will get bumped up to Gold regardless of other flying. (It’s not 100% clear to me from the terms and conditions whether Boston-Pittsburgh, a new route credit, also earns an East Coast credit — and thus whether you could get a one level bump in status from only 3 flights. I’d assume that they’re excluding Shuttle flights and new routes from region credits.)

Status earned through this promotion will last through February 2012. And The promotion isn’t stackable with trial preferred status, as the status upgrade will only take place once trial status expires.