I am not against frequent flyer miles but most concerned about being comfortable and productive while flying. In an ideal world, I would get frequent upgrades to business with a not terrible coach fallback.

I tried flying EWR->SNA on Continental and it was nearly unbearable. I spoke with the GA briefly and its not clear to me I would get upgraded on that flight often with Gold or even Platinum status. I would need to get upgraded 90% of the time to risk being stuck in that coach.

Someone suggested no one gives more upgrades than AA and perhaps the AA 762 would be a good option. If I understand AA's program, though, UDU is only available to EXP and EXP is 100K miles. Would it be worth pushing through to Platinum on CO (probably another 5 weeks) and then trying to status match to AA?

Also, someone mentioned that I should call airline management -- they could get me business class every time if I committed to a $52K annual spend. Its good to know such things are possible but unfortunately, I have to book all my travel through our corporate travel agent and I can't make such commitments. I can probably get away with buying up to 6 weeks out. Also, with vacations and project pauses, I probably only average 45 flights per year. I should also average closer to $800/R/T ticket, too. If this project continues past June, I will probably break $30K/year but not $50K.

Thanks again for the advice and any other tips or tricks for my situation are of course much appreciated.