Travelling to Vancouver next month and requested through email to youfirst that I get 1A or K.
I explained that I was aware that it was usually reserved for Gold. However, I was a GGL until recently (December 14), lapsed that and dropped to Silver but will return to Gold with this flight. They denied me categorically saying that they needed a Gold number to make the reservation. OT: I would be surprised if this was actually true.
It actually is true, if you have 1A/K and drop from gold status, their system will automatically reassign you to another seat.