Originally Posted by
The Situation
Agreed. You only have 9 segments and with taxes, you will be spending $500+ on your mileage run. With such few segments I don't see how you would recoup that investment. Your better bet would be to take that $500 and buy C+/F on your flights next year and then you would receive the same (if not better benefits) than being silver.
Agreed - you should consider if its better to just spend that money on C+ based on your future flying plans. If you expect to fly a LOT more next year - then it might be worth going for Silver. But if you're flying the same amount, then buying C+ could be better and cheaper.
Silver gets you exit-row at booking and Zone 1 boarding. Depending on the routes you fly you get a decent shot a C+ upgrades and tiny chance at F - looking back to the last time I was Silver, out of 12 segments on BOS-MSP, I was upgraded to C+ on 6 of them and to F twice. Plus you get 2 extra RDM per $ spent.
Buying C+ gets you guaranteed C+ and SkyPriority boarding. No upgrades to F.
There's no difference in MQM earning, but you get more MQD for booking C+ (simply because it costs more ).
I would do a couple of dummy bookings to see the difference in price between buying coach and C+ for some potential trips next year - and multiply that by the number of trips you expect to take. You can use that to estimate whether its better just to buy C+ or go for Silver.