I think that you must have been fairly unlucky in the past year. Perhaps you were always traveling at peak times?

In my experience, there is a world of difference in upgrades between 1P and 1K. As a 1P, I averaged around 25% upgrade success. As a 1K, I am averaging around 90% now.

I think that you will like being 1K very much. The only real additional benefits are the 8 CR1s and 6 SWUs (which are like gold). But those benefits are huge.