Hi all,
My family (1P wife and 2P son and 1Pme) plan to continue to fly UAL but my wife and I can't make 50000PQM for 2013 no matter how hard we try. We "failed" this year because we're flying SFO-CDG with AF (Premium Economy) for the nonstop, instead of via FRA (I got too fed up the challenges of FRA connections, plus I hate connections in general, spoiled brat I am).

This year I'll be at 38K and my wife at 33K (I have the older Chase with the 5000PQM/year, which isn't available for my wife to get).

I originally thought that we'd buy up to 1P, but now I'm reconsidering and thinking that I'll buy to Platinum, and keep my wife at 2P (for 2013). We do all of our traveling together, usually for routes where we all sit in E+ or use RDM to upgrade during booking (ie available R space). When my wife has to travel for work, our child and I just tag along (he's only in preschool).

Platinum members can extend E+ benefits to 8 PAX, whereas 1P can only do for 1 extra pax. I am *assuming* that this benefit means booking E+ at booking for Platinum member plus 8 (on same PNR) - please advise if I'm wrong.

Can people here please let me know if my approach to buying Platinum for myself is better than buying 1P for my wife and 1P for me? This is my assumption thus my request to the experts!

Also I realize that it'll cost more to buy Platinum for myself as opposed to buying the 1P for my wife and me.

I still want to maintain some form of status, esp because of TSA lines and early boarding.

Thanks
Michael