After many inspiring words of confidence from my fellow FT'ers, I am a scant 1678 miles away from achieving Alaska MVP (which will also be my first airline status achievement ever!). I've already booked enough to hit MVP, but I'm curious how soon I will be eligible for MVP benefits. Here's my upcoming itineraries:

25Sep: SEA-EWR (will hit MVP on this leg)
28Sep: EWR-SEA
29Sep: SEA-ONT
01Oct: ONT-SEA
(and more trips basically every weekend in October)

As you can see, the dates are very close together. I know my chances of getting upgraded on the return leg from EWR are slim, but for a midweek west coast flight, I really want to land that upgrade! What are my chances that everything will be in place by the 29th? Is there anything I can do to speed up the process, or barring that, convince a GA that I'm a newly minted MVP?

Also, with my increased travel, I've been considering a board room membership. How soon will I be eligible for the reduced initiation fee? With so much travel coming up I would like to get in as soon as possible, but still save the $50 afforded to MVP's.

Thanks for any advice. I'm still a little bit giddy about all of this...