Been BA Gold for donkeys years and I have to agree - upgraded on the ticket I bought on very, very few occasions. I like the quick(er) check-ins and I like the lounges - there are some pretty grim airports lurking in my flying world... Hardly ever use the miles to upgrade - family hoovers them up too quickly... I've changed routes/airlines recently and rarely travel BA now - virtually no Tier Points this year and was consigned to losing gold... but lo and behold - got a nice email from BA saying that due the the terrible inconvenience suffered by their customers (not me...), they would extend my gold membership for a further year.. How nice..