I had my first really interesting experience just this week. I flew DAY to LAX via ORD both there and back on UA. I took the red eye back with my pregnant wife. I am a USAirways Platinum which translates to Gold. I was treated very nicely by UA in DAY where they made sure that I was in Econ Plus next to my wife and that my bag was first off in LAX. They did mention that I was Gold so I felt like they actually recogognized that I was not just that the computer said so.

On the way back I was able to use the LAX UA Red Carpet club b/c of my gold status and it was nice considering we had to wait 3 hours for our flight. We also were put in Econ Plus next to eachother which was nice b/c we were not sitting together and my wife was in regular coach.

When we got to ORD they would not let us in b/c we were travelling domestically. Since it was five in the morning I did not feel like arguing or using the "my wife's pregnant" line. Not that I know the policy but it doesn't hurt to try. We slept in the C12 gate area for a while as we waited for our flight to DAY.

I don't know if this helps but I found it interesting b/c this is the first time I really had to use "Gold".

JB