Actually, when I moved to Dubai from SFO, I came in late summer and did not have enough time to achieve Gold status. I wrote a letter to Emirates saying that I would like to use them as my airline of choice, but only if they give me gold status considering I was only 4,000 miles short of gold after being a member for only 5 months. I mentioned that I was a BA Silver card member and could easily keep using them for my travel to North America and Europe.

Anyway, I got a letter back a week later saying that I had been given Gold status for two years on the condition that I successfully renewed it over the following year...which I did in four months.