I think that most of your questions were answered. However, if you are getting close to becoming either an MVP or MVPG, you can call the mileage plan and see about getting your status expedited. This happened to me as I had been a gold for many years running, stopped traveling, lost my status and then started traveling again. I was able to get them to bump me to MVP by showing them how many trips I had taken so far and what I was on a pace to do this year. MVP is not as good as Gold but at least you can get on first.