Originally Posted by
gaobest
Yeah it's pretty amazing - you can fly zero miles BIS during a calendar year and spend about $10-$15K to be 1K the following year. This *is* a change from PMUA to UA that I do like, even if I've yet to do it. The technique is to book a fully-refundable ticket, then buy the RDM & PQM, then cancel the fully-refundable ticket.
Thanks for the advice so far - if my wife remains 2P and I'm 1P, and we travel as a family of 3, then only 2 of us can get E+ seating during booking, and the chances of getting E+ 1 day before the flight depend on E+ availability at that time. And I'm not sure if I really want to sit in E- during a flight... we tend to fly to/from SFO, which is elite-heavy, thus many PAX already in E+ (or so I think)...
It will cost approximately $3250 more to get Platinum rather than Gold. Why spend $3250 just to get the benefit of one more E+ seat? You can buy one E+ seat for the flights that you take with your child. I suggest Gold for one of you and Silver for the other. If three people travel, then buy a third E+ seat.
Upgrade possibilities for Plat are barely higher than for Gold, and though as a Plat you can save some money on fees, it's not worth the price difference.