It's interesting that there are quite a few mentions of GGL here, as you'd still have to do a large amount of spend to get those 5000 TP... Is that really worth it when you can just pay taxes and redeem Avios on First/CW?
One of the reasons I asked this question is that I'm actually in a position where I earn more Avios then I redeem. I'm able to always fly CW or First (when available), yet something about flying First with a blue status doesn't feel quite right. I can't help but wonder if the cabin crew think that too. So in my case, even though I manage to do 95% of my flying with Avios, part of me still wants to (unnecessarily) spend £3000-5000 on cash flights to get Gold. Am I mad!?