Originally Posted by
hhdl
There's a substantial XP window between 66 and 180. If this individual lands in that window, they roll over substantially (up to 105) more into their 2024-starting year, which will come in handy in future years.
Given that the threshold for Gold is 180XP, a rollover of 105XP is wiped out the very next year.
(Again, in the specific scenario of the OP, where even getting the 66XP needed next year if they stuck at Gold this year looks to be problematic, they are mathematically far better off getting Platinum this year, because they end up with Gold for the same period (with a maximum differential of 2 months) as the other strategy of sticking this year at Gold, and flying another 66XP next year - but without even needing to fly those extra 66XP.
Go for Platinum this year: Platinum til July/August/September 2024, Gold til July/August/September 2025 with no further XP required.
Stick with Gold this year: Gold til September 2024. Further flying required (66XP) in order to get Gold til September 2025.
In both scenarios, getting Gold for the period September 2025-August 2026 will largely depend on whatever flying is done staring from September 2024; we know that the next 12 months look pretty lean for this flyer, so it's not valid to assume there will be a big rollover into that year starting September 2024 regardless of which "Path" the OP now takes.