cmjaffe

Not a newbie here but needed a bit of "flame free" advice.
Will need fly BDL - SFO in October with some "flexibility" (not sure might need to cancel due to family circumstances, may relocate before then etc). Right now there's some great fares ($303ai) but for $68 more can do Choice Essential or $88 Choice Plus. Since have Lifetime Platinum status realize the major benefit of these options would be that though "techincally" the tickets are non-refundable I could cancel/reschedule the $$ spent without having to pay a reticketing charge... is that correct? If so, then it's "a no brainer" -- especially since I found a 5% discount code (going to a conference so it's "legit"). Now, what's the difference between Choice Essential and Plus other than being able to do some day change w/o fee (vs. standby which I'd get with status). Right now there really isn't a need to do that since I'd rather not leave SFO too early.
Any advice/suggestions would be appreciated. I feel getting 5K+ miles is definitely worth $354 vs using plan ahead award for 25K.
TIA
Carolyn

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To add on my previous post....
what would the bonus miles be for doing Choice Plus since it would only be $19... the routing is BDL - SFO and the outbound flight would be the BDL-LAX (new nonstop)LAX-SFO... I believe the BDL - LAX is offering double miles, plus the actual platinum bonus....
thinking if it's 50% bonus it might be a very "cheap" way of earning additional miles.
TIA
Carolyn