Thanks for the info. 40k is about right, but that's 16 500 mile credits which is only enough to get me to SEA and back once in 1st. Better than nothing of course. And E+ is nice. I looked around the UA website, and it seems as if the 1k deal is pretty nice with the system-wide upgrades, but I'm unlikely to get to 100k.

i would be interested in thoughts on other airlines of which I know virtually nothing.