Skacorica

So, I live in Denver and have flown exclusively frontier for the past 5 years working as a consultant. I primarily had to go to the west coast + chicago, Ohio, and New York so I never had to fly anything but frontier. Well, my newest client is in Toronto and I will be flying there basically weekly or every other week. Im considering switching over to United exclusively, but I am having trouble stomaching the fact that I will still have 0 status come January first despite the fact I should be near 25k miles.

My first Toronto flight was one month ago and have had 2 since then and I am already feeling very irritated. Ive (well, my company) spent about $3300 so far since I have to fly on short notice and each time I have had a terrible seat in the back, had to gate check 4 our of 6 segments and the flight attendents seem very rude compared to frontier.

Do they ever gift even the first level of status? Is there any accelerated way to get it? Im feeling very frustrated and I think if I could at least get into exit rows or economy plus + not have to gate check, the transition would be much much less painful!