Originally Posted by
enviroian
At any rate like Tommy Leo said--star gold means you can access any star alliance lounge even while traveling in economy. It just has to be an int'l itinerary that's all.
The lounges are great, especially if you have a connection internationally. But what I really like about being *G is the fact that I get to skip the entire non-preferreds check-in line for non-US *A flights, which can be excruciatingly long on int'l flights. No need to show up 2-3 hours before a flight!
However, if the OP is only going to be traveling on US for int'l flights, I believe the OP will be granted access to Preferred check-in anyway.