Given that vouchers expire, it appears you are intent upon booking almost 5K in travel between now and the end of the year. If status is something you desire, wouldn't a third option be to use 5K in UA credits for 95% of your effective travel (all of the domestic and almost all international) and then find cheap flights on Star Alliance partners (more UA credits) to finish the last 5%?

Example - if one wants to go WAS to PRG, is it so wrong to do (as an example) WAS-FRA on UA, spend a day in FRA (to avoid misconnects), then do FRA-PRG on LH for $150 round-trip?