Thanks to all of you, esp. pshuang, for the very insightful posts. I fly the NYC-LAX legs quite frequently on personal travel, and by buying early I can usually find it at 4 cents per status mile--but I wasn't sure if this was a good deal or not. As I'm on the precipice for 1K, I should be paying more attention to this stuff--
Thanks for the tips! (And keep 'em coming if anyone else wants to chime in!)