Annoyance of the day

Athena and I were in Chicago for a couple of days... more on that later. I flew back Monday night and she stayed for another day for a class. Anyway, I checked into United where I have achieved "Premier Executive" status. You may ask, what does this status get you? Well, I found out... They gave me my gold colored boarding pass that allowed me to go through the shorter security line. I then thought I would use the United lounge. When I went in they scanned my ticket and found that I wasn't a member... and therefore not allowed in, regardless of my supposed "Gold" level of status. When I flew with British Airways (a very high class airline) I got to the silver status after a few round trips. That status allowed me to use any of their lounges ANY TIME I flew, regardless whether I was flying BA or not. It just shows how differently the US carriers treat their customers these days.