I spoke with an United Service Director few hours ago as I needed assistance with a flight that was credited elsewhere by mistake and while on the phone with her, she mentioned that she has been with CO for over 20 years and it's been the case that if someone is a little short (I am 316 miles away from Platinum), they can grant status. She mentioned they do that for Gold and Platinum - and that it was up to 750 miles short, I. e. in my case, I should be able to get Platinum. She also said that the adjustment cannot be made before the end of the first week of January and that she's not sure if it's done this way that RPUs will post to the account. This was what they did last year but she was confident it will remain the same for this year.

So, up to 750 miles short should still get you Platinum. That means up to 1% short. I'm not sure it's also up to 750 miles for Gold as well but if it's up to 1% short, I. e. no more than 500 miles away from Gold, that should be upgradeable as well. She made no mention about 1K - that might be a tough proposition because of all the GPUs involved, which are considered to be quite valuable. So, they may be quite strict with 1Ks considering there's no PQD waiver for spend for 2014. And she didn't talk at all about Silver, which doesn't mean it's not an option, especially for someone who is only 80 miles shy.

To put things in perspective, I did a Trial Preferred challenge with US Airways and was only 87 miles short from reaching the 30,000 miles required for Chairman's but they wouldn't budge - the rep I spoke to said - "Get on another flight and quick" since we had this conversation within a week before the deadline.

I did mention that with me being so close I won't be opposed to just buy the miles I need with Elite Maximizer but she said that people have been mentioning very high rates at the moment - I tried booking both a revenue and award ticket but Premier Accelerator rates are at $0.42 per mile and the lowest I'm allowed to purchase is 1,500 miles when I only need 316.