Originally Posted by
Rami Tamimi
I would say it's not in the spirit of OW rules, but does OW care? They are clearly not bothered by all those status matches given by AB (and if you look at the Russian analogue of FT, you will see that many provided fake cards to AB and got matched). Same with TK, except that they are in *A.
The airline that provides the status is responsible for paying for some of the benefits. Lounge for sure, not sure about luggage, seat selection etc.
And no matter how many people have give-away AB status, it is still a drop in the ocean for the major Oneworld airlines because the gamers, almost by definition, aren't travelling enough to earn status the usual way.