Wow, lots of feedback, thx all. Thx for welcome G-BOAC. I've read some of the sticky threads in the past and found them very useful, but this is first time I've needed to post.

My gold renewal came through probably March this year, after a year of little travel. I originally gained about 1800 tier points to qualify for gold. Then about 450 tier points following year, so well short.

A work colleague was in similar situation to me but did not get a comped gold card, so whilst BA is our company's preferred vendor from UK that doesn't explain the difference in BA's responses.

Wasn't really caught up in the Gate Gourmet issues. I flew shortly after when things were slowly returning to normal (sandwiches in T1 lounges for passengers), but by then my LHR/SFO flight had returned to normal.

So, likely this may remain a bit of a mystery!

Graham