I need around 2,700 miles to get to gold this year. I've never done a MR and I'm wondering if it's worth it? (I'll be traveling to Europe in 2001 on an award ticket, so perhaps gold will get me better seats and priority boarding).

I'm based in WAS -- so I'd need to do something farther than DFW to get the needed miles... so it'll get costly, I'm guessing. Any advice? Is it worth it? And any MR ideas?