Originally Posted by addicted747
Having taken four BA flights since this post I can confirm that there was no recognition of my emerald status at any time , no visit from the Cabin service director and no reference to my name. Also no mention of my status on the boarding pass on two of the flights and no op ups at all but no complaints on that front. As a Diamond member I will definitely be angling for Cathay J in future even with the inferior seat as the all round package is just better and there's always the chance of that op up.
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BA J really is better than CX J (and I say that as the biggest fan of CX that exists on FT). To be fair to BA, they do recognize OW status most of the time, even if your 4 flights don't show it (and I must have 100 flights on BA longhaul by now, though most in F where they do remember your name, with or without status). BA is far less consistent than CX in their inflight product (both crew service and even the physical goods onboard the aircraft; also often cabin crew know less about the F service than some pax do, many times I've asked for something simple, like the comb insert in the amenity kit, been told they don't have it any more, asked them to please check and they find it ... this happens over and over again these days). My sense is that the BA F product has had a rough patch in the past 2 years but is now improving and coming out of it.
Back to your original question, chance of opups as a non-BAEC Emerald, I am sure that most of the time you will be upgraded before any BA Silver. However there are a lot of BA Gold around, though most are flying CW so it is the J->F upgrade that they are angling for. I've even seen BA upgrade from Y pax with zero status (presumably they ran out of any Sapphires).