The first time I read this I thought new players could get in on this as well for the limited time in December. I figured the Vana'diel experience campaign was for veterans but I saw "download a free trial of the complete edition" and jumped the gun. Unfortunately as you said a pre existing PlayOnline account is required D:

I spent a few hours downloading this only to be hit with the screen of "transfer your playonline etc etc to a squareenix account etc etc". Well, it was worth a shot. I saw some really cool artwork in the process.