Originally Posted by cityflyer369

Well, your Gold status will be beneficial to a certain extent whenever some problem that has to be dealt with is left to staff members' discretion. (Such as upgrades when Economy is overbooked, or finding a suitable flight to rebook you on when your original flight has been cancelled or is very much delayed, etc.)

But do not expect too much. It is not for no reason that status benefits are officially published. Also, there might be Platinum members around when discretion is applied, which means they might get priority.

In other words: there is no way you can actively "use" your status for getting unpublished benefits. In fact, if you insist on a certain treatment (on the basis of discretion) because you behave like a self-important Gold member, this might well backfire.

So if there is anything you can actively do to make the most out of your status then it is this:
- Be thoroughly informed about your benefits (and do the maths when necessary), including those little perks that are published, but might not be so obvious at first sight (such as perks with non-Skyteam partner airlines, a small amount of bonus miles when renting a car from some companies, increased award availability), and, most of all,
- be a Gold member who is friendly and polite to all fellow travellers and staff members.