There’s a thread on the board called “Is it worth it to stretch for Platinum” that might be of interest. In general, my opinion is that there are three tiers worth striving for in the current UA system — Gold, 1K, and GS. I would not consider a mileage run to try to get to Platinum — the extra benefits just aren’t there, in my opinion, especially when you’re a full 25K miles away. In your situation, I would try to schedule the one extra flight necessary to reach Gold, which, assuming you have the time to fly it, should be doable for less than the $650 it’d cost to buy the status.