Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Ethiad miles - membership upgrade?

I am going to purchase air tickets from JFK to India on Etihad for me and my wife. It gives us 17424 miles each.

The miles required to upgrade to their silver program from their basic membership is 25000.

Will I be their silver member before the starting of the trip or do I get the upgrade only after completing the trip?

I am asking this because silver members get access to their lounge which will be useful for us during the long transit

nakkal, you will only get access to the Silver benefits after your miles have posted to your account, some time after your flight is completed. Not before the flight!

The only way I could imagine you will have access is if you somehow get upgraded to C. If you can upgrade at checkin, this might be a possibility, albeit unlikely.

I'm not aware of whether passengers on a codeshare with a partner airline (e.g. AA) could, by virtue of the codeshare and elite status in the partner airline, get lounge access in economy.
That's another distant possibility, but I've never read it on the EY website.