Unfortunately it's the Centurion AmEx, not Platinum, that costs $1000 and you airline status. It's a lot harder to qualify for Centurion.

And a matter of terminology: each airline has its own names for its elite frequent flyer levels. "Gold" is first-tier with American, second-tier with Delta, and doesn't figure at all in United's naming scheme. So using that term can be confusing.

As for the original question: if you're not going to fly enough on an ongoing basis to maintain some sort of elite status, the perks probably aren't worth the cost of qualifying. You're going to take ten weekends and sit in airplanes. If you like sitting in airplanes, fine, but in terms of tangible benefits you'd come out ahead spending the same amount of time flipping burgers for those folks with the arches. And your elite status will expire at the end of next year unless you repeat the process.

If you WILL fly a lot on an ongoing basis starting next year, and it will or can be on AA, dgordon's suggestion makes a lot of sense. (You can generally only do their challenge once.) I don't think other airlines have anything like this, though.

Next year, it looks like you'll probably accumulate something like 35-40,000 miles from the trips you listed. That will give you first-tier elite status in most US programs. The most important difference in tangible benefits between first-tier and second-tier is the higher mileage bonus, typically 100% vs. 25% of miles flown.

So, say you fly 40,000 necessary miles each year. Should you fly another 10,000 miles to reach second-tier? Assuming a steady-state situation where this recurs each year, you'd get another 50,000 miles per year for doing so: the difference between 40,000 with a 25% bonus and 50,000 with a 100% bonus. Those are worth about $1,000. If you can fly the extra 10,000 for less than $1,000, which should be easy, you should do it.

You can do a similar calculation for qualifying on segments instead of miles, or on any other scheme such as AA points.

And, if you do qualify, the extra benefits (like getting into the upgrade line ahead of first-tier elites) are gravy.

By the way, where did you find six-segment flights for $140? Some of the other folks who qualify on segments might like to know!