"Current Silver, Gold, and Chairman’s Preferred members who are not within boost range can pay $1,199 for Gold through 2015."

Not bad!

If I'm at 25K Prestige and I want my Star Alliance gold benefits, and I know that my flights will INCREASE next year (e.g. weekly), this is not a bad deal to save the headaches.

Free luggage, priority lines etc with all star alliance partners.

Though you can get a maple leaf lounge pass for $665 for worldwide access... you need to be able to estimate how many flights you can fly...