Barney - Welcome to US. The trial-preferred got me hooked onto US, it's a really good marketing tool for them.

You should get the priority tags on US for a silver (not sure if it's an official benefit, but back when I was a Silver I always got the tags). You won't get them for other star alliances until you make gold.

You get to use the First Class check-in line, no card is needed. They can see your status in the system. From there, I usually get the tags. I've had a pretty bad hit rate with priority tags with the kiosks. The biggest benefit is that your bags will make it on in case the flight is weight restricted. With oversize items like Golf Bags, your items may still be the last ones out, or in a separate area.

Consider signing up for the US Airways Mastercard. 25k miles, 1 club pass + 2 $99 travel companion certificates. The best part about this card is if you spend $25k in a calendar year, you get 10k of your miles coverted to preferred qualifying miles (PQM). Thus you only need 15k of butt-in-seat (BIS) miles to keep silver for 2012.

Also - watch out for many promos that US does typically in the 3rd or 4th quarter for fast-tracking elite status (Race to Preferred in 2009, and Hop-Skip-Jump to preferred in 2010, in addition to the double PQM promo earlier this year as well as the second round of double PQM for selected cities).