Hang on...your status says you're BA Silver.
Why do you need to pay for seats then?
The "OP" says s/he
now has no status with BA - from this we can infer that s/he has dropped from silver to blue and forgotten to update their profile.
The middle seats are brilliant for couples but a bit of a nightmare if you're travelling on your own. I've only been unlucky enough to be stuck there once - the plus side is that my neighbour was an attractive female ^ The downside is that she had a cold
Over 8 hours of torture - I still have nightmares - don't think I've fully recovered from the trauma
