Only you can answer if it's "worth it" to spend the money. If you find the treatment is better (which is consistent with my experience--- even "entry tier" status on any airline is better than traveling with no status at all), do you find it so much better that you don't mind coughing up a couple hundred dollars and a day or a weekend to reach?

I don't know how you value your time or what your finances are like. I know if I were faced with the same decision, I would take the MR. I like having an elite line to call if there's bad weather, and I like getting on the plane while there's still overhead bin space, even if I check in late. I like being able to choose from the "elites only" seats when I book, and I like having some fees waived. I also don't have any kids (so my weekends are my own to plan), have a fiance who is happy to go flying for no reason with me, and can afford the flight plus all the related expenses (parking, meals, hotel if we stay over). So for me, it's worth it. For my sister, the social worker, who spends a lot of her weekends actually working, and does not make as high a salary plus has some ungodly student loans to pay down, she loves the perks that status brings, but it's not worth the money or the time to go chasing after (she usually asks me to gift it to her ).