I've very much enjoyed reading this board and figured there's no better place to ask two questions:

1. I'm currently CO Gold and, because of work, will certainly fly enough next year to make platinum. Is there a challenge offered by CO that will allow me to obtain that status in a shorter period of time?

2. More importantly, I'm based in NYC and am considering switching my carrier of choice from CO (out of EWR) to AA (mostly JFK with some LGA). My question is, given the choice, which would be better in terms of upgrades? Obviously CO has complimentary upgrades, but it seems most people are skeptical about the number of upgrades received for Silvers or Golds when flying out of EWR. Do Golds and Plats on AA hit for a higher percentage when it comes to upgrades? And is it that much more that the whole 500-mile things are worth dealing with?

Other than that, it seems that both AA and EWR fly to most major cities in the US non-stop, though I'm wondering if one uses regional jets more than the other (thus eliminating the second class of service) ... Any thoughts on picking a program would be appreciated.

Thanks!