Well, I bit the bullet and booked a 4-segment trip on US for later this month. I'm hoping that there will be a mechanism at the end of the year to combined EQM/EQS from both airlines to determine (re)qualification. I rarely do mileage runs, but I'm looking forward to utilizing CLT to add an extra leg here and there on my way home from a trip for just the $10 marginal cost in fees.