I need 12,806 miles to upgrade to TK Elite. My 12 month period will go until July 2014, so I have plenty of time, but wanted to get the miles in my next flight which is TLV-ORD round trip.

If I fly TK I'd get the following miles:

12,376 (via Star Alliance site)
12,364 (via TK site)

If I fly UA I'd get the following:

12,806 (via Star Alliance site)
12,822 (via UA site)
12,782 (via calling TK)


Why is TK giving slightly fewer miles than the Star Alliance site? This is annoying because by any other calc I'd hit TK Elite, but by TK's calcs I'd be 24 (!) miles short.

If I flew then complained to them would they change it? Do they ever upgrade statuses based on being super close like that?