Originally Posted by
BenA
Great choice - this is exactly what I’d do in your shoes. The free redeposit is perfect for this situation. As an added bonus, you’re getting well over 1cpm for your miles, so if you end up keeping the miles it was still a good decision IMHO. (You could even do something like rebooking yourself on a paid ticket later and keeping your wife, who doesn’t care about MQM, on the award...)
That was my suggestion earlier, to keep in mind as an option for late March, but I suspect that the award ticket flights are likely to be more expensive (when paid in money) in March as they are now, so OP will need to decide between foregoing MQMs, paying more for his ticket, or not having the same flights as wife. There could also be a loss of a C+ seat if modifications are made later.