Had a similar experience in AUH last week - two colleagues and I all had the magic beep boarding a QR flight to DOH en route back to London. The gate agent received a message on each of our check-ins saying something along the lines of "high value customer". It was 0550 in the morning, so rather too early for the exact wording to sink in. We were already in First (QR sells its regional Gulf flights business product as first) so no upgrade! Interested to understand what this was signifying for one BAEC Gold, and two BAEC blues...