Air New Zealand Air Points - Do AirNZ still match elite status?

I was reading about 12 mths ago that AirNZ would match status of other airlines.
Maybe someone could tell me if they still do.
I called the office of Airpoints yesterday and the lady said they did not.
Any recent experiences?

When I was *S on AC's Aeroplan last year, I asked and they said no. Now that I'm *G, I may ask again.

I think they should, but then it's easier to maintain *G on AC.

aussielori, any luck? Would be interested to know what Airnz's reply was.
Thanks

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by DavidNZ:
When I was *S on AC's Aeroplan last year, I asked and they said no. Now that I'm *G, I may ask again.

I think they should, but then it's easier to maintain *G on AC.</font>

I don't see that it makes much sense from the airline's perspective to match status of an allied airline, since you will get the benefits of AC status flying on NZ anyway. I could understand them matching QF status, for example, to tempt you away, but even then they need to be careful not to dilute their own elite benefits by creating too many elites - rampant status matching in the US is one of the reasons why frequent flyers there are constantly complaining that their benefits are being eroded.

The only time NZ were matching status was when AN went down the tube and they offered to match AN status with equivalent NZ status.

For the record I think also UA and SQ had the same deal.

*A last year also had a deal where Australians were able to be matched from competitive airlines (i.e. QF) but not *A.

*A in general has a no pouching rule of elite flyers.

Mark

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Koru Flyer:
*A in general has a no pouching rule of elite flyers.

Mark</font>

Given that the symbol of Qantas is a kangaroo, one assumes they don't have a similar "no pouching" rule? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

(Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Never know, the way things are going NZ might be pouching soon! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

Mark

Sadly true!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Koru Flyer:

*A last year also had a deal where Australians were able to be matched from competitive airlines (i.e. QF) but not *A.

*A in general has a no pouching rule of elite flyers.

Mark</font>
I was asking to be matched from NWA/KLM.
The girl at the ther end of the phone said. Northwest?
never heard of them.
No havent got anyone who will comp YET.

Doubt they will comp from NW/KLM as NZ does not directly compete with them.

At least that is what *A (Australia) reverted to when people did the KLM match with their *A card last year, then tried to use the new matched KLM card to match to *G on another *A carrier.

Mark