My wife and I are contemplating using BA as our carrier of choice. I've been reading through the BA website to learn the system of being BAEC. As we would probably qualify at the Gold level I have a couple of observations that I would like clarified.
It seems that once you reach Gold you have all the lovely perks for booking, boarding, lounges, etc. as we would find with most quality airlines.
The part that seems a disappointment is that there is no "leg up" or advantage to being Gold with regard to upgrading. It seems that everyone from Blue to Gold GL is in the same competition to upgrade with the various methods of getting into CW or First. Coming from Air Canada the Super Elites have booking windows that give them preference over the lower qualifying levels.
I realize that BA will only release so many seats per flight until they conclude that they will not sell the remainder and at that time they would be released back into the pool for upgrades that will be gobbled up first come first serve.
Also, if you book a ticket you would have to manually search every day/week to see if any space has come available. This might work if you are planning months and months ahead as you should find your upgradable space but on departures less than a month out it seems to be a very low possibility of an upgrade. Have I understood the system?