if your not planning on going until well after the end of the year take advantage of the merger. signup your wife for a Chase UA card which currently offers 30k as bonus..also look into CO offers such as the Chase checking debit card with which you could each get with 25k CO bonus miles and if neither of you have had a CO brand credit card now is the time to get bonus miles (25k or 30k?) for signing up.....It is likely after they merge the 2 flyer programs will merge and combine your CO and UA points at a 1 to 1 rate. they have stated they expect this to happen around the end of the year. The CO offers will likely disappear as the merger draws near, so get em while you can. Look into the AMEX SPG card you can each get 30k SPG points each you can then combine them into one account (free transfer between spouses with same address) and trade them in for UA miles as well, though the exchange rate is not great for UA it would be enough to get you over the limit sooner than the merger.