Maybe they won't do it because you're requesting it? Perhaps you should get your friend (the Gold) to call up/use MMB themselves to move them + their Silver companion to 1AK and then move yourself via MMB to 2AK right after? If you're a Silver calling up trying to jig around with Gold seat allocations on someone else's account, I'm not surprised they either won't do it and/or can't (e.g. they're looking at availability in MMB based on your account, not the Gold's since it's not you).

1AK should* definitely be available to Golds and has been in my (albeit limited!) experience.

Phil
* "should" in the sense it seems to be the usual practice. But not in the sense that it's what the BA bulletin to TAs said "should" happen after the changes (that says no access to the first rows of any cabin) IIRC. I did post this up once, but don't have time to hunt it out right now, sorry.