Originally Posted by
PUCCI GALORE
Dear All - this is an absolutely genuine question. What benefit is there from being Status matched unless you actually intend to fly the carrier anyway or already have. The only benefit that I would get would be on Air France. Frankly I am far more concened with keeping my Gold status on BA then worrying about matching with carriers that I have no intention of flying. I have nothing against Scandinavian but have no intention of flying them.
What am I missing? Why are you so interested in this?
Well, you've been around here long enough to know that for some, it's "because I can"...however, there are benefits for some, in particular alliance benefits with other Skyteam carriers. If you fly SK/Skyteam occasionally, but not enough or in high enough cabins to gain useful status, the status benefits are handy. Obviously to have it for a meaningful period, you'd need to do the qualifying flights to extend it. If you're flying for business, it's not always possible or desirable to stay within BA/oneworld, even if that's your main focus as a programme (possibly also true for some mainly leisure travellers). That's the attraction for me, I wouldn't have bothered if I had no intention to fly SK/Skyteam.
The possible ability to status match onwards from EB to *A via LH is another attraction with this one, though I haven't been keeping up with how successful people have been with this. Probably need to pay attention now my EB match has provisionally arrived.