Oops, meant 15th, good catch sbm12.

And bulgarianfreak55, fair question. I travel monthly for work in Business Class from NYC to Europe, fairly exclusively on Lufthansa partners. However, we always book on United stock to maximize MP earning potential. I realized that by getting to Gold sooner, I can gain a substantial amount of additional award miles, plus have Star gold benefits when I travel throughout Europe (on Economy fares).