In reality, they are not easily attained. The actual number of Balcony suites is very low and they get a huge amount of elites there, with current demand also being very high in general. I did get upgraded for my last night to a Balcony suite (ironically it was a Premier based on the floor number), which was after I had a discussion with a senior manager - this discussion also yielded insights into their upgrade process and elite numbers. Unfortunately I dealt with an unpleasant junior manager at check in and my email to their boss got lost in the ether - when the boss got my email from another source, they reacted very well and service recovery was solid. The suite was a very nice junior suite.

As an aside, I didn’t like that the Premier Balcony room we initially inhabited had an interconnecting door, especially as it was so small. Something to be aware of - I know it doesn’t bother some people but I’ve had bad experiences with these doors and noise at other hotels.