Whilst I wholeheartedly follow the advice on FT "never to expect an upgrade", I used nevertheless enjoy the occasional Op-Up to F from J in the course of my frequent transatlantic flights with BA in 2003-2005. Generally I'm a meek guy who takes what he is given and am happy with it; I'm not someone who ever converts a missing meal choice or a broken AVOD into a miles request; it's just not me to complain if I haven't been seriously put out. So the world I read about on FT ,where a missing starter choice or a wobbly foot-stool merits 5k miles is not one I live in. I'd simply be embarassed to complain about something so trivial in the overall scheme of things, and as a result I'm probably 100k miles short of where I should be. BA even sent me an invitation to eat a dinner at a restaurant of their choice about a year ago due to a genuine - but ultimately not serious - complaint on service standards. I've never sent them a bill for a meal, it just seems not a right response to a rude CSD (such was the complaint) when I really wanted them to speak with the CSD in question rather than buy me a meal.

However now I am beginning to wonder whether meekness results in being stomped on. I've accumulated 10,000 tier points since mid-2006 (and am a Gold Guest List member), which by my records is the last time I was Op-Uped from J to F. This seems a long time in my book, amounting to over 70 long-haul flight sectors in club plus a large number of short-hauls on top. I almost wonder whether BA have tagged me as "not suitable" in some manner, or have even tagged me as "hardly ever complains"....

Since I am in the middle of a tug-of-war as to who gets my long-haul travel and recently flew five long-haul trips on another airline (even so I still have accumulated 2500 TPs in 8 months since my last GC renewal) I've begun to factor in these zero-upgrade into my longer term decision as to what airlines to travel.

Am I just unlucky? Or do the meek get stomped on, on BA?