Gcal,
On a less than full flight they will only issue boarding passes to the staff at the very last minute, despite there being plenty of seasts available. The passes are printed then held back.
Been there, suffered that. Just to point out that it is a local BA rule. You don't get that on IB operated flights, but they are told to make staff wait until the last minute on BA flights by local BA managers. Apparently one of the explanations is that it's something to do with the possibility of having to check in excess cabin baggage, so they do it to the staff rather than annoying commercial passengers. But I don't think that's the main reason, as they hold your boarding pass even on half empty flights. On an IB flight, you are given the boarding pass as soon as possible. As per the priorities, gate staff have no say in that, and if they followed the BA policy, you wouldn't even be at the gate without a seat, as seats are given when the flight closes and it's done landside. In LHR, if there are no seats at closing time, you don't fly, even if there are 20 no-shows at the gate, as you cannot go to the gate without a seat. They don't have a say in that. It's all down to the handled airline local reps. They are not trained in priorities, because, as per BA policy, no staff passengers should be onloaded at the gate.
Just to clarify this point.
