ryuker16

I fly out to a new location in North America weekly and it will likely include international locations very soon.

They choose hotel(random), carrier(united usually) and location(anywhere) while utilizing an very elite mileage card to pay for tickets(Nearly all workers travel like this, I.T network engineering firm) so I assume I get 1.5 miles or maybe free lounge benefits already.

Mostly domestic economy fares(F?) round trip, nothing special.

I see the yearly price is $500-ish.

1. What premier status allows me to get free lounge access on any flight type?

2. What about other carrier lounges part of the flyer mile alliance?

3. Is there any challenges like AA for quickly jumping premier levels?

4. What other major bonus do I get from premier levels?

I'm 100% re-reimbursed for all travel expenses including food, taxi, car storage, car rentals, gas, hotels, bag fees, etc so money saving perks are a non issue. In some locations we will have zero time to see the sights or tourist attractions but we won't know until we get there and likely will have the ticket to the next location ready.

I assume that only leaves lounge access, line skipping TSA, and free plane rides....can someone advise me one what I should look forward too?

5. At what status can I expect to get bumped to business or first class regularly?

6. A co-worker asked another long term-er about what amazing things he would get with frequent flyer miles. He was told:

"All you get is a bag of peanuts and told to to shut da **** up".

I'm beginning to suspect this might be true.....the amount of effort to get these benefits is staggering for all who aren't being paid to fly regularly it seems. I'm hoping for some advice on how to quickly get elite asap...if it's even worth it at all.