Looks like UA have updated their status match/mileage challenge program for 2012 here:
http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,53424,00.html, however, they have added this caveat which I'm pretty sure wasn't there last year:
Customers who hold Star Alliance Silver or Gold status are excluded from this offer.
So now I'll have to wait until DC is completely subsumed before finding a new *A home, maybe not a bad thing, wait and see what BA have to offer, or is it maybe worth a punt anyway?
In the meantime how best to score E+ on a couple of UA bookings I have coming up...