Gold for 2014 and General Member for 2015 or Silver for 2014 and 2015?

All,

I'm in the process of planning out some small scale business travel for 2013/2014, and I could either cram in everything this year, or spread it out this year and next year. All flying would be in Y. So, in terms of status, I would have to choose between:

1. Qualify for Gold for 2014 early December this year, and have Gold status till February 2015, but risk not even making Silver for 2015, and therefore be back to General Member.

2. Only qualify to Silver for 2014, leave some travel for 2014 so that I can qualify for Silver again in 2015.

At this point, I am Silver, and I like the ability of getting E+, even if only at check in. I also have the Presidential Plus card, which gives me Lounge access, and as most my travel is international, having access to Star Alliance lounges (mostly LH business lounges) is great.

Qualifying for gold will lead to:

• downgrading my Presidential Plus to the Explorer card, which would save me the annual fee (had the first year free, then bit the bullet and paid for year 2)
• possibility of losing E+ if I don't qualify for Silver for 2015.
• since I will thus have less than 25K of travel for 2014, I don't know if the bonus difference from 25% to 50% would make much of a difference.

If I end up only going for silver:

• I'm not sure whether I would renew the card or not to keep lounge access. I would still have the UC passes, but no longer access to international lounges.
• I will have E+ for two years.

In terms of CPUs, probably not much difference between Silver and Gold, since I mostly fly international, and the domestic segments are mostly on regionals out of CLE.

So, decisions, decisions. I would appreciate your thoughts on this.

Thanks.