Today I woke up to see my account had turned into a lovely new colour .... I am one happy bunny. I would never have gone for it without all the great and informative information and assistance from the best BA forum on the planet - thanks to everyone!
Since I make the BRU <> LHR trip all the time, I decided to just increase the rate to achieve the 19 flights required for the status. Last January I booked almost all of them in one shot, since the prices were incredibly cheap. So it worked out that I paid £208.03 for each flight making the total cost to achieve gold to be £3952.57. To me that sounds like good value for money, especially with no tier point runs involved. Is that a fair assumption to make?
Now ... time to change the rest of my flights from 2F to 1F (dont know why I prefer the right side of the cabin ....).
Thanks again !