1) You will not get status from credit cards. A few cards give 10K status miles if you spend in the range of $25K/yr, but that's it.
2) Focus on business class. Some airlines have eliminated international first class, and on many others it's quite hard to get with miles. Some of your intended destinations don't even have it.
3) I'm not that familar with the award charts, but international business class starts at 100,000 miles. Say you get cards from Delta, USAir, United, American Airlines (two with 2-browser trick), Chase (Sapphire Preferred) and American Express (Preferred Rewards Gold). You're just under 300K miles, enough for 2-3 trips. But it's still not that simple because some of your pieces are not combinable. For example, your 40K US points can't really be combined with anything - you'll have to wait a few more years to either churn the card or get the 10K each year on renewal to get to 100K for a trip.

I don't mean to be negative, just trying to help you understand the dimensions of what's possible.

Also, once you have your miles, you have a whole new skill to learn, which is finding award space. You don't just log in, pick your flight, and go. There's quite a lot to learn there.