I agree with United959, sweet talk the gate agent.

I only few a couple of times last year, so I lost status early this year (end of March I think, even though I thought it was supposed to be end of Feb).

I was flying out of CMH a lot. Being it's a small station for UAL, the gate agents are always the same. I made an effort before I lost 2P to get to know them. When I lost 2P, they were surprised, but did a great job of getting me E+ seats anyway. Now I'm a 1P since I've been here most of the year, so I can book exit rows, but they know who I am.

If you fly a smaller station a lot, it can really pay to get to know the gate agents. It's less helpful at ORD since there are so many, but I'm usually on a packed-to-the-gills monday AM flight anyway, so it doesn't matter as much.