I find myself in the (personally) rare position of having enough upcoming leisure flights to qualify for the lowest tier of elite on either UA or AA. Does anyone have comparisons or links to previous postings about UA 2P vs. AA Gold?

Here's my situation in a nutshell:
- fly primarily for leisure on the cheapest flight available that meets time criteria
- most travel is to the Midwest (FWA) and East Coast (BWI/NYC/MIA/FLL etc) for friends and family
- occasional trip up or down the West Coast to SFO or LAX
- very occasional trip to BKK for family, upcoming honeymoon to NAS, so not a whole lot of international travel

I'm really struggling with which carrier to go for lowest tier status on. UA has a redeye to ORD connecting to FWA that we like to use; AA used to have one to ORD as well but it got nixed. UA seems to have better network out of PDX than AA. Having flown both in the past 3 months, I find the AA MRTC to be a bonus, given my lack of status on UA (or reluctance to pay full Y to get E+).

Any help or suggestions would be truly appreciated!