Welcome to Flyertalk Racer_x, welcome to the BA forum, it's good to see you here and you have certainly come to the right place to find out how to make the most of your Avios and indeed flying with BA.

ARN is, in my opinion, fairly strong on Gold cardholders. It isn't in the same category as EDI or GVA, but it is probably in the group below. When you are getting near to travel (4 days before departure or less) by all means reach out in this thread so that someone can read the tea-leaves for you.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ght-loads.html

That said, not all Golds go for row 1, some prefer row 2 instead, others seek out rows where they will get all 3 seats to themselves, and quite a few GCH simply aren't bothered about seat selection.