Not strictly analogous, but I basically got comped into Silver due to year-end lag this past year. I think the underlying logic is that it makes more sense to kick you up a notch in status than to have you be able to obtain status the next year for far less (and/or have far more carry-forward points) if you've got the premium card (e.g. had I not cleared into Silver I would have had about 19,000 points ready to count towards status for 2015...meaning that after credit card status points I would have gotten Gold after spending only about $3000). If you're at 49k and have the relevant card, they can either give you Gold outright and call it a day...or potentially have to give you Gold after you spend $1200 on VX and $30k on the credit card (giving you that status for close to two years if you spin it up right quick). I suspect VX would rather just give someone who is close in on status Gold (and thus discharge those nearly 30k points of "status liability", if you will) as opposed to not doing so and then having you get close to a second year free.