I too am going from CP to zero this March. I emailed the Chairman's desk and got a phone reply last week. The CP rep told me she could give me gold in March, but I also had the option to by CP for $8,000. We both laughed and I said no of course.

However, I did tell her that my travel would be much greater this year (as it was in the past, I've been CP for about 7 years) and that I would be flying just about every week. Once I said this she told me to call back in March and that she could probably go ahead and put me back at CP depending on how my flight history looked.

That being said I do think they can do something based on our travel history and what our pattern looks like for the year. If they were truly going to drop me to zero status I would have probably looked at going to United. However, based on where I live US is the best option.