I am currently at 199K+ LP's. I've gotten a fair number of LP's both from flying and from gift cards. (I can't get an AA credit card.) I've been redeeming miles for a lot of my travel lately, since I don't need the LP's. I can recycle enough GC's that I could make EXP solely on GC purchases as long as it stays at 3X.
In addition, I have several flight/trip credits that will expire sometime in the spring. I am cutting back on my travel, so rather than traveling every month, I have a trip planned for December, January, then not until April. My Dec/Jan trips are booked already although I could switch from points to cash, and I might for one particular flight - it's a 788 with SWU's available, and since I've found it's extremely difficult to get comp upgrades on the 788's, it's worth burning an SWU - keep in mind that I almost never fly internationally.
I have one SWU from last year, I haven't claimed my choice award for 2022-23 that I'm now eligible for, for making PPRO.
So here are my questions:
1) Does the date I make EXP affect the date on which I have to select choice rewards? I would prefer to defer that decision as long as possible.
2) Say I have a trip or flight credit that "expires" on March 15. Do I have to travel by March 15, or book by March 15?
3) Other than slightly higher upgrade priority, and keeping in mind that there is no way I'll get to 350K LP's, is there any value to getting more LP's now? There is a slight financial and time cost to buying and liquidating GC's, and always a danger that a bank will shut me down (although $6K a month is very different than the $250K a month I used to do). Is it most logical to just wait until March 1, and then go pedal-to-the-metal on buying GC's anytime they have a 3x multiplier?