Welcome, and I'm sure someone more important will be along to welcome you properly shortly!

As someone usually flying J (or with the family in Y), I have always had the same feeling about being Silver - there aren't really any benefits that are particularly useful that you don't already get.

But as a relatively newly-minted Gold, I've found quite a step up so far. The Flounge's are good, but not that special. The real benefit I've found is the increased Rewards Availability - both in terms of additional rewards seats, and the "double Avios" Priority Rewards. Suddenly all those Avios points become exponentially more useful, and I've booked many more short breaks this year already.