Thanks guys

I'm definitely not reaching gold again under my own power (with or without premier card) as I'm no longer traveling on biz.

But I do really like upgrades and concierge lounge, and just a single night of paying my way up to that level of room would cost a couple hundred bucks. If I can buy a year of that for the same, it seems an obvious thing to do.

The other factor is that if I do NOT buy my way to gold, next year I'll definitely lose silver....and so lose the pathway to buying gold at this price. Whereas if I buy gold now, next year I'll just slip to silver.