Originally Posted by
kmersh
My thinking which maybe entirely flawed is as follows: If I were to go for Gold, next year I will have less XP (maybe none) to start with (after FlyingBlue deducts the 180) and will have to fly more to obtain Silver where as say if I stop at 150XP, I will have 50XPs to start off with next yer only necessitating 8.3 (really 9) segments at 6XP per DELTA First Class segment to qualify again for Silver.
If you make Gold (requiring an additional 80XP), you have a whole year of Gold, followed by a guaranteed year of Silver.
To say that you "have to fly more to obtain Silver" is incorrect; when you reach 180XP, that gets you a year of Gold, followed by a year of Silver,
regardless of what flying you do in those two years.
As your priority seems to be just to maintain status, then you are turning down the opportunity to earn a further year of Silver for only just 80XP.
Even if you don't make it up to Gold, you will still start the new Silver year with a significant head start on making the 100XP necessary for that further year of Silver.