Originally Posted by Zippo58

This year I made Silver for the first time. I obtained this status with 4 return trips to Singapore in PE (leisure trips). I just got back from a short BA Holiday to Las Vegas over Christmas. I flew out from LHR on an AA codeshare flight to LAX - that was "interesting" as they "de-checked me in" and re-assigned my seat. I ended up in the worst seat on the plane 44H - right at the back surrounded by the galley and rear toilets. It was a miserable flight. But that is another story. Quite frankly the whole experience of my first trip as a Silver was disappointing. I found the lounge at T3 particularly disappointing as the hot food on offer was stale and as hard as a rock. Coming back the lounge at LAS was small, crowded and once again the food on offer was pretty dire. I had a coffee - why in the world would a self-service vending machine automatically add sugar? If I wanted sugar in my drink - why can't I add it myself. Event the cold flavored water drinks contained sugar! Oh - and the 747 ride home - the plane was old, dirty worn seats, the IFE was from the stone age and the food was really only good for the garbage bin. Quite honestly I really do not think that status for people like me really works and I've come home wondering why I spent all that money to actually get almost zero benefit.

The lounge experience was poor, the advanced seat booking failed as I got bumped to the worst seat in the house and the ride home was on a plane that was past its sell-by date.