The reassuring thing about this thread is that I'm not the only sucker who gets stuck in the boiler room for work trips :-). Having already met the TP balance for silver in four months I'm starting to think Gold might be reachable. Although the depressing drop from lounge to Y would be a bit much...

That being said I did manage one trip in C on a 787 (very very late booking, customer was paying) although it was ANA, and was somewhat surprised at the angle of the wings. Having a window seat over the wing was "fun" as they do seem to flex a lot in flight.