Originally Posted by smashr

I was in your same situation this time last year. (Had an unexpected SYD trip, which put me close to 1K for the first time ever, but still needed about 11k). I went for it, and I was glad I did. At the time my rationale was that I knew I would be doing at least 3 international trips the following year, plus another ~40k domestic.

I had thought that 1K would be a one-year-only thing for me, but it turns out I'll be over 100k on booked travel alone this year. Thus, it turned out even better than expected as I got more use out of the extra benefits (namely upgrade priority) than I expected to.

Now next year, 1K UDUs won't be quite the same slam-dunk they are today (as Silvers on government/corporate Y-fares will be trumping 1Ks), but you will still get some CR1s and some SWUs out of it, 25% extra mileage, and still certainly better upgrade priority than you would get as a Platinum. Bottom line, if you are reasonably sure you will fly enough both domestic and international next year to make use of it, I'd say go for it.