Who has a gold card? [Archive]

BEagle

16th Dec 2004, 19:41

I'm a gold card holder with LH and have around 1/4 million of their 'Miles and More' miles. Now, whilst it's nice to have the use of a lounge pre-departure, LH certainly don't go out of their way to provide anything special for gold card holders. I used to have a more friendly flight experience travelling with buzz and paying to use the STN lounge than nowadays with LH...

'Priority' bag tags - useless
Priority row 1 seating? Great - nowhere convenient for my briefcase.
Business Class catering - Has been rubbish since 1 Apr on European flights.
Cabin crew are usually quite friendly and apologetic about the poor service standards which the LH beancounters have imposed..

But I always check to make sure that, wherever possible, I can avoid flying in those horrible little CRJs!

One thing which does annoy me is, particularly at BHX, the number of people who try to wheedle their way into attempting to get an upgrade or entry into the fairly small lounge. Dare I say this, but they are usually from a certain ethnic group; on one flight a chancer inserted himself into a C class seat and , when the numbers didn't tally, everyone was then politely asked for their boarding cards. "Sorry, I seem to have mislaid it", he said. "Your ticket then, please?" "But I have already handed that to your staff" "Your baggage label, sir?" "Ah yes, I have it here" About 5 seconds later, the No 1 stated in a loud voice "Sir, you are travelling on an Economy Class ticket - and your seat number is....B". With much "Why are you doing this?", he and his large cabin bag were politely escorted to his rightful seat.

I just don't like cheats, liars or people who are unreasonable to the check-in folks or the cabin crew. But equally I really don't like being short-changed by LH's current attitude towards European business class passengers.

Bramley

16th Dec 2004, 22:24

'Dare I say this, but they are usually from a certain ethnic group'

Would that be Brummie or chav? ;)

Final 3 Greens

17th Dec 2004, 08:05

Hi Slim Slag

I'm astonished at your attention to detail - are you by any chance a beer mat collector? ;)

Anyway after investigation with a magnifying glass, I can confirm that you're quite right in your assertion and that my glittery card does say "elite plus" under the logo in the bottom right hand corner!

Where do Skyteam fly to?

Where nowhere really, apart from Europe, the Americas, the Far East, the Middle East etc :} and the membership keeps growing, like the EU .... DL, KL, OK, CO, NW, AZ, AF & Korean :{

Interesting to note Redfred's response, it would seem that the distribution of a small number of prats in the gold card system might well be typical of the same in the airline industry.

Merry Christmas to you, sir.

Islander Jock

17th Dec 2004, 11:00

SAA Voyager Gold.

Great service and friendly cabin crew.

wub

17th Dec 2004, 11:06

I once boarded a BA Dash 8 at Bristol for a flight to Edinburgh and witnessed an astonishing scene. A middle-aged woman was remonstrating with a man who was seated in the first row. It transpired that she wanted to sit in his seat and he was having none of it, as he had been allocated that seat. She was insisting that she wanted his seat because it was the one she had sat in on the outbound leg. The cabin crew were trying to get her to stop making a fuss as they were ready to depart when she played her trump card. Out came the BA gold card and it was waved in the man's face.

He promptly burst out laughing and said that it meant nothing to him. This only made her worse and the cabin crew were seemingly at a loss as to what to do. Sensing this, the man stood up and said "Here, take the seat and shut the f@@k up"

"About time", she said and flounced into the seat. The man got a round of applause from nearby passengers and was plied with free drink for the duration of the flight. The woman was totally unfased by the episode, believing it was her right, as a gold card holder, to cause such a stir.

Jordan D

17th Dec 2004, 11:10

Personally (as a student) don't have one, but my mother a frequent flyer LHR-SFO for buisness has one .... thankfully we get the miles and it has paid for a fair few holidays. And the LHR girls/boys know their stuff and have be as generous as to give my mum & I an upgrade to Club when flying to Prague in 02 X'mas. Cheers for that, enjoyed the holiday even more!

Jordan

radeng

17th Dec 2004, 12:03

BA Gold.

Membership year expired October, so started collecting for next year. Will have qualified for Silver by Xmas for the year starting next October....

I fly too much!

slim_slag

17th Dec 2004, 12:53

F3G, how did you guess....

I am proud to announce I am BA Blue, and it makes absolutely bugger all difference to the way I behave or the way I am treated.

redfred

17th Dec 2004, 13:54

Yes Wub I like it, happens everyday.....

Flip Flop Flyer

17th Dec 2004, 14:32

SAS Eurobonus Gold for the last 2 years, with roughly 1/4 million miles on the account. Give or take. Spend 160K this summer on hotac and tickets flying myself and 2 lady friends to London.

Wub

Had that gentleman been me, I'd calmly pick up a magazine and start reading. She could have stood there 'till hell froze over, but unless the crew asked me to move I'd have stayed put. And if the bitch waved her gold card in my face I would have taken it and bit it in half. Had it been a male I'd lamp him, but don't under any circumstances hit women.

MD900 Explorer

17th Dec 2004, 22:31

SAS Eurobonus Gold. (Not as many miles as Flip Flop Flyer though)

Nice when travelling the Star Alliance to be able to chill out in the lounge, when not flying Helicopters for a living.

In NZ now and having a ball.

MD :ok:

Gouabafla

18th Dec 2004, 06:38

I normally fly about 100K a year, but working for a charity, I've always got to buy the cheapest flight. That combined with having to visit a large number of destinations means that I rarely get enough miles in a year with any one airline or alliance to get even a silver card, much less a gold one.

Romeo Delta

18th Dec 2004, 21:05

Delta Platinum with about 300k flown in the last year and a half (plus United/Star Alliance Silver with about 40k on there as well, and Frontier Ascent with about 5k on there).

I've seen a lot of people, including people I work with, that try to use the "Do you know who I am? Look at my level!" technique, and all it really does is nothing to help them out. I've always been a "bees with honey" type of guy. Give a smile a compliment, and they'll see when they check the system what level I'm at. Works wonders for me. :ok:

Too bad not enough people seem to take that approach. A lot of grumpy people out there who want to make everyone ELSE around them feel the same way. :yuk:

RD

slim_slag

18th Dec 2004, 21:52

Yes Romeo Delta, I think you have hit the nail on the head. They can see your status on the screen, no need to show a card or be pushy (except to some of the lounge dragons :ouch: ).

I think in most (but not all) airlines the staff genuinely want to help their higher status pax and so will do what they can if you are nice to them and without needing to be told you are 'gold'. It's on their screen for crying out loud!

Actually I think the more jerks the better, because that means the airline staff will be more likely to give the nice people with similar status the op-upgrades.

And Gouabafla, you should be able to get status on some carrier with 100k miles a year, unless you are flying locos all over the place. 100k a year on a loco would be tough going...

Talking of locos, Southwest have the best frequent flier plan out there IMHO. None of this 'gold' tier status stuff, but the free ticket benefits are the best on the market.

BEagle

19th Dec 2004, 08:00

At LH check-ins, you need to produce your card so that they can feed it to their machine. Hence 'flashing a gold card' at check-in isn't showing off, it's part of the check-in process.

I regret to say that I have seen quite a few people trying to bully the check-in staff into giving them an upgrade; however, I've never seen it succeed!

In flight the LH seating computer tries to allocate 'Senators' to particular seats; on the last occasion I flew the senior FA noted me writing a customer comment note and asked if she could deliver it for me. She was obviously concerned that there was something about the flight with which I was not happy and read my comment; when she realised that it was yet another complaint at the poor standard of in-flight catering which LH has been expecting Business Class travellers to put up with since 1 Apr 04, she was immediately sympathetic and agreed that the company had dumbed things down to an unacceptable level. In fact she was very apologetic about the current standard and hoped that, with sufficient complaints, LH might return things to the way they used to be.

Wot No Engines

20th Dec 2004, 04:43

QF Platinum - Probably going to go down to Gold for next year - at least I'm not travelling as much - I find the benefits just about make up for the discomfort caused by travelling a lot - how many wish they could get a simplehome style meal when staying in a Hotel where they insist on only offering rich fancy food - it's ok occasionally, but 2 to 3 times a week for several months is too much. Yes, this is almost all company, but why would I get on another plane for a holiday.

As other have said, the ONLY way I have seen upgrades given is by being pleasant to the checkin staff. I regulaly get bumped to earlier return flights on non-flexible tickets and the occasional upgrade.

Anyone know why the QF Melbourne Sydney 6:30pm flight is always excessively expensive and then so empty that I almost always get bumped onto it when I'm booked on the 8pm or later (for 1/4 the fare !). I never ask for this, and never complain if it isn't offered (I just get 1 1/2 hours to drink some free good wine).

BTW, the text message and 3 different phone calls to let me know of a delayed flight is a bit excessive.

Gaza

21st Dec 2004, 19:01

BA Gold (soon to be Silver)
KLM Platinum Elite (soon to be Gold or whatever the tier below is)
bmi Silver

My job means I no longer travel on business but a Business Class Round the World ticket will see me reach Gold on BA by October next year.

PAXboy

21st Dec 2004, 19:50

Travelling LH yesterday (LHR/MUC) but in coach as it was a redemption trip. The cheese sandwich was OK ... except that it was HALF a sandwich and nothing else!! Drinks still inclusive so my friend had champagne! She was too pleased at all the snow out on the ground to be worried about food. :rolleyes:

I have not been on Lufty for a couple of years. When I was a regular on LH (silver for a couple of years) the food and service were bearable but the ´food´ yesterday was as bad as you folks have been saying! Incidentally, the paid-for-price for economy for this 10 day trip was GBP211. so I think that I would have expected something more than HALF a cheese sandwich. :*

I recall a friend saying that her father, Gold on LH, had approached the head of the Biz check-in to ask a quick question. He showed his gold card to confirm that he might take the liberty of asking a quick question.

The agent pointed and said, "Go to the back of the queue"
He said, "But I only wanted to ask a question?" :confused:
"Go to the back of the queue" :sad:

flybhx

21st Dec 2004, 19:56

wub,

why did they not use the simple option with a disorderly pax - offload. One less ass isnt going to dent the profits too much.

Final 3 Greens

22nd Dec 2004, 05:17

Flybhx

You are joking, I presume?

Gold card holders represent the lifeblood of airlines.

The passenger behaviour described sounds a little stressed out, but from a commercial decision, are you really going to offload one of your top tier customers and walk away from the revenue and yields?

You should go and read a book on marketing and in particular, the chapter about the danger of creating "tyrant customers" by hyping loyalty schemes.

Even the supermarkets shy away from refusing to serve customers with more than 10 items, in the 10 items or less queue. It's called grinning and bearing it.

Just out of interest, how do we know that there was not a duplicate seat allocation, on the evidence available?

That happened to me only a few days ago and is encountered typically 1-2 times per year. The woman whose "seat" I was sitting in (we both had 10A), then bitched that I got upgraded to business for the inconvenience and she did not, so its not just the GC holders who make a fuss.

slim_slag

22nd Dec 2004, 08:50

He should be sent to the back of the queue, the people waiting patiently in front of him might also only want to ask a question. How many times does 'asking a question' to a check in agent turn into a ten minute task?

I cannot remember ever having to have to show a card when checking in with LH. Maybe I just look the part :p Now with the LH lounge dragons it's a totally different story.

wub

22nd Dec 2004, 09:24

flybhx,

The woman in my tale was not exactly disorderly, just extremely vociferous and wouldn't let go.

When I was BA EC Blue I once travelled with a Silver-coated colleague who got me access to the lounge and arranged for us to sit together on the flight to discuss business. When the flight was called, Silver and above were invited to pre-board and so, still chatting, we left the lounge for the gate. When we presented our boarding passes the girl said to me, "we are only boarding gold and silver, you're blue, get to the back of the queue".

This was in front of a whole line of passengers, many of whom I knew. At the rear of the line I found two other people who had received the same treatment.

I later complaind by phone and was told it was a 'training issue' and the girl would be spoken to.

BEagle

23rd Dec 2004, 07:09

"I cannot remember ever having to have to show a card when checking in with LH. Maybe I just look the part :p Now with the LH lounge dragons it's a totally different story."

No, it's something to do with etix - and they do swipe the card for some reason.

The LH lounge dragons - it varies. Some will ask for your card, others are content to note 'SEN' on your boarding card. But it does make me think of movies like The Great Escape when they ask for the card - "Ihre Papiere, bitte! Good luck" - and it's difficult to suppress a grin!

LH is in great danger of polarising passengers. European travel is dire compared to this time last year - all the cash is being spent on pampering the long haul super premium, such that they now have a new class above Senator termed HON. (Not HUN). 600000 miles in a year needed to reach that. Plush lounges, limo to the aeroplane (no MUC or FRA packed, jolting bus)... But at the other end they've made cut back after cut back, robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Aksai Oiler

23rd Dec 2004, 10:49

BA Gold card & a Gold Amit Arkia card

Doesn't normally do me any good; I finally got my one and only BA upgrade last week on the 9 hour BMED flight to Almaty, which must have been this year's Xmas Prezzie from BA; or maybe because I moved my account to Spain and they don't know any better.

I read in the Telegraph the other week that a BA Bluie had been upgraded several times when flying with his wife and thought they were the best thing since sliced bread.

121 flights last year, with over 50 One Mold flights. I just only wish Air Astana and SCAT gave me frequent flyer points (and also a window without curtains and the Axeminster Carpet), but I suppose at least the rubber band works to get me from A to B

Final 3 Greens

23rd Dec 2004, 12:38

BEagle

A sad case of short haul becoming bussing, with price driven service and long haul premium class being pampered, because of the margins.

I wonder how long business class will survive on short haul?

strake

23rd Dec 2004, 20:02

BA Gold going to Silver in eleven months and Blue in twenty-three-(ish) months.

Virgin, gone from Red-to-Silver-to-Gold in six months.

Well, I warned them.....

offshoreigor

27th Dec 2004, 22:35

Hi All,

Does anyone on this forum actually pay for their own tickets?................I Didn't think so

Cheers,

:E OffshoreIgor :E

Final 3 Greens

1st Jan 2005, 17:49

OffshoreIgor

and your point is?????

Please elucidate.....

christep

2nd Jan 2005, 08:08

Offshore Igor,

Yes I do. I buy at least two RTW First Class tickets every year with my own money, plus various shorter stuff. I'm CX Diamond and AA EXP. Your point is?

Gouabafla

3rd Jan 2005, 14:56

No I don't pay for my own tickets and because of that I have to work hard to keep the price down, rather than thinking about comfort, convenience or sticking with one airline long enough to get a gold card.

If I was paying for my own flights, I'd be thinking of my own comfort much more than I do now.

Rongotai

4th Jan 2005, 01:06

I am Gold on Star Alliance (and will be until I die) and on OneWorld. This miracle is not unusual in NZ where many like me live here but work a lot in Europe and the US. Also I suppose that owning the company means that I pay for my own tickets.

As others have said, when you fly as much as I do the FF miles are rarely used. What I expect from Gold or above status is reward for customer loyalty in the form of the lounges, dedicated check ins, dedicated reservations phone numbers, early boarding, seat preferences where available and the like. I certainly do not expect to be privileged above any other customers such that they are disadvantaged in order to grant my wishes.

Despite owning my company and being gold I travel economy (but World Traveler Plus on BA) most of the time because I believe that a CEO should obey the same rules as employees. Our rules say business class only when there is a scheduled meeting within 24 hours of arrival and more than four time zones are being crossed.

What I have experienced in recent years is frequent unasked for upgrades on BA and NZ (but not often on QF or UA). I found this odd when I heard the stories of others, so last time I got an upgrade I enquired what I had done to deserve it. "You have a reputation for being nice to our staff, so we do our best for you", was the reply. I don't know if this characteristic is somehow recorded on my file, or even if it is true (although I am firmly and strictly courteous to airline staff, even on the rare occasions when I am under severe provocation), but if it is so that my way of being is noticed and recorded, then it looks like a gold star is a better thing than a gold card.

Final 3 Greens

6th Jan 2005, 13:10

Well, just got my new Skyteam Gold card - I qualified (30th segment) on 16 December 2004, so that was cutting it a bit fine .... strangely enough, I got no other premium cards for the other 60 odd flights last year... just shows how it is factors such as the destination, most convenient airports and the schedule that often drives purchasing decisions.

Globaliser

20th Jan 2005, 18:07

offshoreigor: Does anyone on this forum actually pay for their own tickets?I pay out of my own pocket for every single penny of every single mile that I fly, all for leisure and none for business.

I'm Qantas Gold.

Sultan Ismail

25th Jan 2005, 14:25

Who pays for my tickets? Me

Last year I flew Kuala Lumpur - Johannesburg on 6 occasions, Kl to Zurich and London once, KL to Brisbane once and 2 trips to Penang, all on Malaysian , or SWISS.

All in economy, and they still give me the Enrich Gold Card. This is always useful for the red lane check-in, the lounge and the opportunity to check for a better seat (by the emergency exit). On a recent trip the comment was "well there aren't any, I'll move you upstairs" They get my money everytime!

Had a surprise move "upstairs" when I was travelling on an economy redemption ticket KL to Jo'burg.

The best ever upgrade, given at the gate was SWISS, Zurich to Singapore, First Class in an MD-11, nothing like it.

PilotsPal

26th Jan 2005, 12:38

I get lots of upgrades. But I get mine the old fashioned way.

spiney

28th Jan 2005, 21:52

BA Gold, AA Platinum and whatever Sky Team's top level is... what I don't get though, is that deal on BA's Ex Club Website that allows you to track the points needed to stay on Gold. In recent years I didn't have a problem keeping BA Gold, because on the routes I was travelling BA operated decent services. In my account, according to the Website, they'd indicate Gold expired in say October of that year and I needed 1300 Tier Points to retain etc. More recenly I've been flying BA less and other airlines more and last year fell short by 500 points - and they gave me Gold back anyway.. Nice to have, but the only advantage I've spotted is they give you first choice for meals.... oo-ooh... I also thought BA Gold conferred a guaranteed seat on any scheduled service - not when I tried... The only advantage of AA Platinum is being able to check-in in the Lounge - excellent for American Airports.

I don't get the snide insinuations about who precisely pays for tickets. What's that got to do with anything? If airlines relied only on people who paid for tickets using their own money they'd be out of business rather quickly. I prefer to spend my own hard-earned cash on the better things in life rather than seats on aeroplanes...

cxnotqf

30th Jan 2005, 09:58

QF Platinum and Oneworld emerald.

Travel mainly with CX since AN went down and 911 happened.
Most J class service isn't worth poop these days. No fault of the crews (except for the ocasional QF guy having a bad hair day) just the airline bean counters screwing us all again. No matter who pays for your ticket ;)

Nigerian Expat Outlaw

31st Jan 2005, 15:49

The use of the lounge and Upper Class check in at LHR Terminal 3 is nice, but other than that I can't see any benefit on the actual flights; I use Upper Class every few weeks and pay for my upgrades from Economy. Spending the miles is good though.

And if it is relevant (although I don't see how) no, I don't pay for my economy tickets !!:ok:

edinv

7th Feb 2005, 18:17

* Alliance Gold / Aeroplan Elite on Air Canada. - Need 35,000 miles per year travelling on * airlines to achieve this status.
The 'experts' say AC is the easiest * carrier to gain status, due to their lower threshold level into * Gold.
-Was gold on KLM, now silver for 2005, and maintain silver on BA.

Alpha Leader

12th Feb 2005, 15:16

Gold Cards on StarAlliance (TG) and Skywards. Platinum on Jet Airways.

I've found that TG's programme is the best among StarAlliance, with LH's being absolute rubbish. Of late, they have begun discriminating against members of programs other than their own - this, together with their appalling food on long haul and their inexistent catering on short haul have had the desired effect on me: I avoid LH like the plague.

All three cards tend to get me upgrades to next higher class when booked class is full.

MyData

15th Feb 2005, 11:43

At 'peak' I had StarAlliance (BMI) Gold, Virgin Silver, BA Silver and a host of hotel (Hilton Gold, Marriot Silver, etc. etc.) but I've since changed jobs to get out of the away-from-home-5-days-per-week rat race.

With BA I was saving for a Concorde LHR->JFK return trip for myself and my wife. I was regularly commuting MAN->LHR and was just *three* flights from getting the points when Concorde's retirement was announced! :{ From then on, getting to use the points was impossible.

So last year we went to Hawai'i first class. Used the BA points to get to SFO, then used StarAlliance vouchers to get the UA upgrade to first from SFO to the Islands after buying economy tickets.

Now have just over 200,000 StarAlliance points, to get us from UK to Australia next year in First (with a supplement to pay). Then that will be all my points burned...

A KLM Gold Elite card dropped through the mail last year - unsolicited. It has now expired and I've only ever been on KLM twice so no great loss.

Apart from lounge access/seat reservations I can only recall *one* time when having any of the cards made a difference. I was travelling Vienna->Brussels (or Schipol?) and managed to get upgraded from economy to business for what it was worth.

The only time a card has made a difference has been the Hilton Gold. In the UK it might mean a free bottle of wine (Hilton Kensington), but in the US I've received major upgrades *every* time I've shown the card at check in. Including a major upgrade at the Waikoloa Village in Hawai'i for a two week stay!

gofer

19th Feb 2005, 15:15

Gold on One world (BA), Skyteam (AF), Star Alliance (UA) & on Swiss - bout 600K miles in total, but its getting harder to keep them all as I'm down from the 800hours a year to around 4-500 at present.

BA is the long haul favourite in Club (flat beds that you need first class for on anybody else), otherwise AF for great food and the best earl grey tea ever though some of the affaires seats are older that the planes. Srating in business in TG, CX & SQ are Ok if you have to lie diagonally !!!:ok:

DocJacko

23rd Feb 2005, 21:31

I'm AA Platinum, and it does make a huge difference:

1) You get double mileage credits!
2) I can pre-reserve exit row seats in coach (only allowed to FF customers). This is probably the best thing about being AA Platinum, especially when travelling long-haul on the 777.
3) You can check-in at Business or First Class counters when travelling in coach. Very useful, e.g. for check-in in FRA where there are usually very long lines at the coach counters.
4) Free access to Lounges (Admirals Club) when travelling internationally (does not include Canada and Mexico), regardless of booked class of service.
5) Very friendly reservation phone line with mostly no wait times.

MyData

9th Mar 2005, 17:02

I flew Air France from Toulouse to Manchester (via Paris CDG yesterday). Thought that I might as well use the KLM card to collect some points. I showed it at the desk, it has 2004 written all over, obviously expired but I simply wanted the number recorded for my KLM miles (you never know when you might start frequenting certain airlines so I always take the points...)

I'm on an economy ticket, no big deal. When I got the tickets handed back I was upgraded to Business and given access to the Air France lounge at CDG. Which was nice as I had an hour or so wait...

On another point, taking off at CDG on 27L (or was it R?) sitting in an A seat I noticed in the commercial part of the airport a single Concorde parked out of the way, obviously out of view to the public - does anyone know of Air France's intentions for this a/c?

Globaliser

9th Mar 2005, 17:54

MyData: On another point, taking off at CDG on 27L (or was it R?) sitting in an A seat I noticed in the commercial part of the airport a single Concorde parked out of the way, obviously out of view to the public - does anyone know of Air France's intentions for this a/c? I suspect this page (http://www.concordesst.com/215.html) probably says as much as anyone knows.

barry lloyd

11th Mar 2005, 13:09

Platinum Elite with KLM, and I've just received a letter (and a new card), telling me that I am a Platinum Elite member for life. Yes, I've done a lot of flying with KLM, some of which I've paid for myself, but I never expected such a reward. I've been upgraded on a number of occasions (without asking), and apart from a few times when they have failed to deliver my baggage I have always found the service to be very good.
I have a blue card with the British national carrier, because I don't use them very much. Their timings on the routes I travel are inconvenient, and at least at Schiphol I only have to move around one terminal.

Taildragger67

11th Mar 2005, 16:50

Wub,

When I was a BA gold, I was boarding a BA flight CDG to BHX. At every other BA port, goldies can board at will, so when boarding was announced, I lined up to take my seat (it was in row 1 or 2).

However, as they were boarding from the back first, the gate nazis steadfastly refused to let me and about six other rather bemused goldies get on until after our row had been called (ie. last).

That said, whilst generally BA were never amazingly good, they were always dependable with a solid product and never sunk to the depths I experienced (almost invariably) on a certain other British long-haul carrier.

However...

Nowadays, just a lowly BA blue, QF gold and LH gold (senator). Still reckon the benefits one gets as a BA gold are the best of the lot but it ain't me wot decides the corporate travel policy!! The LH lounges (even at FRA) aren't nearly as good as Terraces but the Germans who answer the phones seem to be able to think a little more laterally and are always helpful. And the new LH biz class is pretty good.

Paraffin Budgie

14th Mar 2005, 07:23

Gold on Emirates and on Gulf Air. Emirates has now transferred DXB lounge privileges to the general DAA lounge (meaning the one that Saudia and Qatar uses) until their new gold/silver lounge is operational "later this year".

By comparison, Gulf Air allows me to use their first class lounge in Bahrain.

Upgrades? Never, ever on intra gulf flights, but once on a flight from UK to DXB.