Thanks for the additional comments, I'll just have to work on the spend a little harder.

Just checked my annual spend and I'm closer to the next threshold than I thought. Lessee, car could use new snow tires, wife's dental work, and 2 more months of spending incl Christmas. Should get there easily. Just bought a (small) paid upgrade for my next (short) flight as I wasn't going to get a CPU. If the return leg price goes down to something reasonable, that alone will probably put me over (incl future flights already purchased).