Thought this might amuse y'all. My situation: no status last year (thanks pandemic plus unwillingness to commit to an airline), decided to go all-in on United this year. Definitely making silver, 90% chance making gold, might possibly make platinum depending on how nuts my Q4 is/whether I decide to go crazy and dump a pile of spend on my united CC.

Beginning of June, I have a personal trip to Paris in economy. I'm also tall. That 9 hour flight is gonna suck. When I take off w/o a mileage run, I'd be about 300 PQP shy of silver and that sweet sweet free economy plus legroom.

I ran the numbers. Just under $300 to pay for legroom on the outgoing leg. Or about $500 to take a mileage run and visit a couple friends who I haven't seen for years, hit silver, and then just get the free legroom en route to Paris. So I'm crashing on a couch and taking what nets out to be a $200 vacation. LOL.

actually, come to think of it, if I drop another 80 bucks or so to get e+ on the mileage run, I should hit silver in time to get free e+ on a couple of short domestics between the mileage run and paris too...