Originally Posted by
techie
No way should the Gold threshold be higher. As Filthy Monkey said, for some people it's hard enough keeping Silver. One could potentially argue that those who are never likely to reach Gold should not have a say about the matter to begin with, but raising the threshold will certainly not help them (even if it's not intended to).
One problem with Gold is that you can only qualify for it by attaining enough TPs. Unlike Bronze and Silver, one cannot reach it through frequent flying on journeys in Y which earn 10-20 TPs per leg. Not unless one takes a trip every 2-3 days all year round. Attaining Gold is skewed towards those who either figure out a way to do a TP run or 2 for not very much or those flying in premium cabins on medium+long-haul. Nothing wrong with the latter, but it does not leave much of a chance for those of us flying in cheap Y all over Europe.
Prior to the changes brought in in 2010/11? you could only get to Gold by getting to Silver first, then your TPs were reset. I've had too much wine at lunch to remember what those were, but I believe they were 700/1600, so you have to do 2300 TPs in a year to get Gold in one run. There was a lot less TP-running those days.
Also, it would not surprise me if, at some point in the next year(s), a minimum spend or BA metal requirement is introduced for Silver/Gold/GGL requirements (as is increasingly the case in the US).