So I found this old thread...

When I was a student I used to do a tri-continent commute every summer. At one point BA upgraded me after I'd spent a night asleep on the floor at Heathrow outside someone's office (I couldn't afford a B&B) - I must have looked tired, & was on the cheapest student fare they sold...

When I finished my final year at university I missed my original flight thanks to a stoned taxi-driver who left one of my bags behind. I had to wait for two days to make all of the connections again. They upgraded me for the first intercontinental flight on that trip - a few days before Christmas. And they gave me club world airmiles.

Perhaps looking young & fragile works - but thanks to those incidents, BA has my undying devotion, unlike other airlines that treated me really badly when I travelled on student fares. I've been upgraded since, but I've never appreciated it as much as I did on those first two occasions.

My academic friends tell me that being a 'doctor' also helps with upgrades - PhDs I know get upgraded fairly often.