Originally Posted by csr12621

Thanks for reading my thread and taking the time to respond!

Let's see, want to be ExPlat for 8 SWUs, 100k miles, plus the double miles you can redeem for award travel once you start get status at platinum...

I'm planning two or three international trips this coming year and a couple in 2013, plus several to CA to visit family more regularly and possibly work too since I make much more in CA versus HI. Also, I think I might want to get off this island as much as I possibly can...my husband really loves it here, but I am not as keen on living here so instead of feeling stuck, I'm starting to think it might be nice to have the ability and miles to leave. HI to the mainland is a long flight, so getting domestic upgrades would be great too. I don't know if any of these reasons are real substantial though.

I think you make some excellent points. I loved the taking an actual trip part!!! And I'm a firm believer that you can never have too much savings or miles.

But I think in the end, as you mentioned, I need to figure out if the cost of 3k will benefit me enough...which is really what I was trying to determine. I don't want to do this just because I can...