I was strongly considering challenging to Delta Gold at the end of last year while I still had MVP Gold but ultimately just couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger given that the flexibility to do both LAX-EWR and LAX-JFK nonstop with Alaska is part of what I liked so much about VX. When I go home, LAX-JFK usually works but on the way back I pretty much have to do EWR-LAX and I wasn't willing to commit myself to doing a connection every time I flew out of EWR to LAX.