Gold passengers certainly get standby, that is how I travelled today after my original flight was cancelled. Well, waitlisting is the term the staff used. In my case I got a seat because one passenger failed conformance (unbelievably his first name was Harold!) and I was at the gate at close. And I've been waitlisted after irrops in the past too.

I get the impression that BA don't encourage the practice, their IT really makes it incredibly difficult and requires multiple phone calls, therefore they prefer passengers to go online and rebook into available seats. And to be fair, rebooking is now a lot easier online than it used to be. In my case it would have meant leaving tomorrow, which wasn't an option for me.