It all depends on who you deal with. A few years ago we were in Ireland, having used BA's "free trip anywhere in the world" [from some bygone promotion] to travel on EI, with all the attendant restrictions on back-of-the-plane award travel. Unfortunately our return flight coincided with EI's first strike in umpteen years, and a Sunday, and we *had* to get home. There weren't any BA staff about, and the Aer Lingus counterman wasn't enormously informed or helpful: he told us that we'd simply have to wait for the next available award seats out of Shannon. I sweet-talked him into finding a UK BA EC number for me (the US still being asleep) and explained the situation to the UK BA staff, who took a while to sort things out but eventually rebooked us through LHR. We'd arrived early, so wandered around Shannon for a while before our flight. Much to my surprise a gentleman came over and introduced himself as the head of BA's Irish operations. He apologised profusely, and on the transatlantic trip not only were we upgraded, but we also earned miles...
[disclaimer: status/in-the-profile comments/good luck may have had something to do with this]
an extreme circumstance, but proof that a great deal is left to discretion, if only one meets someone who is able to wield it. My general experience with BA has been that if you ask sweetly for something and are understanding and not demanding, you are very often very well-treated.
[This message has been edited by baobab (edited 09-10-2003).]