Thanks for all your help. I've booked MSP-EWR-IAH-LAX-IAH-MSP for over 6100 miles and $324. This plus some CO routing to Vegas via CLE/IAH for a required biz trip should help me cinch my Gold requal. I know I'd be able to lower my cost per mile on the MSP-LAX trip by red-eying back to EWR, but I only need to hit the 50k bogie.