NYTA

So, I made a mistake. 2-3 years ago, thinking I was about to start a project that would take me from TLV-SFO in J a number of times, I status matched to Silver on CO. Then the project got canceled and I never used it. I ended up flying a lot more on DL/AF and made PL. Last year, tried status matching to UA again from DL PL and they told me I couldn't because of the prior try on CO and that I had to wait 5 years. Instead I did a challenge on US and made Chairman, now down to Gold this year. Stay with me here...

The problem is I fly a lot of long haul in coach from TLV to SFO and on LH and TK to Germany so my second mistake was not realizing that when I signed up for US, that the lower fare classes on LH, TK and LX don't give me full credit on US (but usually do on UA).

So now I'd like to switch over to UA. Problem is, I made this status match mistake a couple of years ago. Now logically, I'd think UA would want someone who is PL on DL and Gold on US to switch to UA - the question is, how can I get around this stupid 5 year thing! If AA and US merge then maybe they'll match me from Gold on AA to UA, but is there any way we can make logic prevail here?

My other alternative seems to be to just suck it up and fly without status on UA/LH/TK/LX, using my US club card for lounges (LH and LX don't seem to give too much *G benefits anyway) until I get at least *G on UA.

Any thoughts from the group?