[RANT ON] As someone who pays for Business Class and very occasionally First Class I get pissed off when people pay £200 and expect/hope to get an upgrade. If you want to fly in Business or First then bloody well pay for it!! [RANT OFF]
Now that I am off my soapbox I'll give you some advice.
1. As
Globaliser told you, EC membership would have been available to you if you had signed up before today - 1st July.
2. On line check-in DOES allow you to book bulhead and Emergengy exits, although these are no gaurenteed and BA reserve the right to reallocate them.
3. If both your flights are on the same PNR then you do not need to check-in for each idividually. For example: A couple of months ago I flew EDI-LHR-DEN on a Saturday. MY EDI flight departed at 10:15 and arrived at 11:45. My LHR-DEN didn't leave until 15:25. For those pax flying LHR-DEN OLCI opened at 15:25 on the Friday. For me OLCI opened for both EDI-LHR and LHR-DEN at 10:15 on the Friday. I was able to get the good seats (in Business) 5 hours and 10 minutes before pax departing London.
4. I'm sure
bealine will confirm, but
asking for an upgrade is likely to have the exact opposite effect.