Originally Posted by
randomasian
Since KE wanted to revamp their loyalty program prior to the pandemic, there's certainly a possibility that they will create a level of status with Skyteam Elite+ for OZ Diamonds to get transferred to. I think in that if the loyalty program gets revamped, it may delay completion of the merger at least another year or two so OZ would likely stay in Star Alliance a little longer. It looked like KE wanted to eliminate the ability to earn lifetime status in their new program so that's another factor to consider.
If KE wanted to complete the merger ASAP, they may just dump all Asiana elites into their existing loyalty program. If this happens, everyone with non-lifetime Star Alliance Gold through OZ gets downgraded to Skyteam Elite and their new status would only match to Star Alliance Silver.
The status match issue is certainly intriguing. On the one hand, since they are going to have a monopoly over many Koreans, they have little incentive to float those guys carrots. On the other hand, I'm guessing about half of their passenger business comes from people who transit through Korea to/from other places. Those customers have other options, and might deserve a bit of wooing to keep them onboard. The best parallel I think of is Philippine Airlines; they manage to straddle the captives and the transit pax needs pretty well on the carrot front.
It will be interesting to see how things shake out, but I'm increasingly certain that KE will ultimately end up in a monopoly position.