No business travel, all personal to great places (retired) w. wife, but we usually upgrade a coach ticket with a copay and miles. Have made gold for the last several years and am a little less than 5000 miles away from platinum. I actually have gotten upgrades as Gold, once in JFK and once in BDL, but it happens so seldom we usually pay to upgrade, particularly w. international flights. With the DEQM promo, wouldn't be very hard or very expensive, but I'm having trouble seeing what substantial good the higher status will do for me. Am I missing something? Any advice would be appreciated