<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kanebear:
I need a run in a BAD way. I'm starting in the basement and am GOING to make plat this year if it kills me.</font>
Whoa, dude. Don't obsess over this. Being a measly Gold (or even a Silver) isn't terrible. As a Silver Elite, I've upgraded all but once on CO domestic flights; my fiancee has upgraded on all but two EWR-IAH Friday afternoon flights and one IAH-CRP Sunday night flight. And you have the option of flying NW out of SAT, where you compete against very few Elites for First Class space (e.g., there were two empty FC seats yesterday on the evening flight from MSP). In any event, the economy sucks, so there's a lot fewer business travelers to compete against.
Anyway, you'd have to use miles to go BF to LGW. If you can't confirm an upgrade in advance, maybe you ought to buy the BF ticket.