Originally Posted by FlightDetective

To one extent or another, I'm sure.

Due to the difficulty of achieving Gold in the past (as outlined above, YBH in Economy only etc etc), my impression is that there is still an awe factor around "Gold Card Holders" delivered in training to the crew. I remember when an ex of mine went from easyJet to Mixed Fleet. The way he spoke about GCH was with a particular reverence as though they were these amazing godlike passengers who could do no wrong, which would have only have been instilled in him during the training.

(as an aside, he took great delight in telling everyone his boyfriend was a GCH which made me cringe, especially because at the time it was a gold card... with Qantas (the equivalent of BA Silver). He never did let facts stand in the way of trying to make himself look important, but he was young!)

As I've said before, I get treated nicer as Gold compared to when I'm Silver and I'm sure it comes from what Gold actually was historically to certain extent.