We all know that airlines set their own policies and when you call/fax that's what you get, the standard policy.

To get more (and what you want) I see you need to do two things:

1. Prove a business case to the airline that THEY will benefit by giving you whatever status you want. Whether it be in miles travelled, a copy of your last years cc summary showing airline charges, routes your flying on a competitor, or whatever. Point being figure out what they want and then show them that you have the ability to give it to them. Make a compelling story!

2. Get to the right person who has the authority to overide policy, and make an exception based on a good business decision.

I'm sure they get a bunch of people trying to match status so they make their rules accordingly. And a bunch of them never come through.

I was comped AA EXP to UA 1K a few years ago. I was told no way, Prem Ex was it. I got hold of someone in the Marketing Dept, faxed by prior years AA statement showing almost 200K miles, explained why I want to fly UA (AC bought out CP and my family lives in Canada which is where I use my miles, and UA was partners with AC). I very easily could have stayed with AA, but they wanted my business. At the end he couldn't thank me enough for switching to UA and giving me 1K accomplished it.

That was a few years ago when revenue wasn't the deciding factor, today if you can prove you spend lots of money, have a great story, and get to that right person I'd be surprised if they won't make the right business decision.