If it helps, the upfront 3 year plan (which is a little cheaper) typically can be converted to month to month once the plan ends. You should receive an email at the end of the AppleCare warranty and have a limited time to convert it and continue on month to month AppleCare. I don't see any written guarantees of this, but I was told this at the Apple Store and my BIL just did this on an Intel MBP 16 earlier in the year.