it depends on how long your legs are. Even though I'm 5'10", I'm upper body tall and really short on the legs so even the seats in the back are fine for me (doesn't mean that I don't appreciate extra legroom). If you're like me, any bulkhead seat works fine, row 21 works great, row 17 is the easter egg on board for select flights only, I thought row 20 was just fine as well, though some will disagree with me. After that, any aisle seat works fine, then window seat, then middle seat, though even the middle seats aren't that bad.

I am a gold too, don't count on any op-ups, but I think if you look hard enough, you can upgrade with miles. Gold status is like getting the bronze medal, you're happy to be an elite, you're too far away from EXP to care about those benefits, yet PriorityAAccess is terrific on the ground. Depending on the routes you fly, you could even be the highest ranked flyer on board, I somehow managed to be the ONLY elite flyer on an eagle flight last week. The next day, got myself an op-up as a gold member, surprised the heck out of me...

with no aspirations for Platinum, I figure I'll just cash in my earned e500s for extra miles...