Any Flight to the west coast will get the 20,000 mile upgrade. This trip is just too long to risk the elite upgrade. I figure that I will earn 6000+ miles on the trip each way, includiong the elite bouns. So in essence, I am upgrading for 4000 miles.

I don't upgrade in advance anything on the East Coast, that I will risk on the elite upgrade.

BTW,

My wife will not connect when we go to Orlando. She would rather fly coach (UGH) on Delta Express and go non-stop than fly F/C on CO and connect in Newark. So once a year, I get stuck in the back. She claims this humbles me.