Originally Posted by
Rolando Heffers
Thanks a lot for this. So, does this mean, essentially, that there is really no One World airline that will grant lifetime elite status equivalent to the One World top tier ?
That seems to be possible with SkyTeam (I have indeed achieved lifetime Platinum Elite with AF/KL, which is SkyTeam Elite Plus), and from what I read, it seems to be possible with Star Alliance (OZ granting Platinum, and UA granting Premier Executive, which are both Star Alliance Gold, right?)
AFAIK, this is true - but keep in mind that *A only has two tiers. Their top tier (Gold) is more or less comparable to OW mid-tier (Sapphire). You earn *A Gold with 50,000 miles on UA; OW Sapphire with 50,000 on AA* - in both cases mid-tier airline status. Both give you access to business-class, but not first-class, lounges. *A has no equivalent of OW Emerald, which gives access to F lounges and so on and requires (to continue with the above example) top-tier status, 100K miles, on AA. If you fly 100K miles with UA you'll get their top tier, but it won't move you up the *A scale because you'll have been at the top already.
So, while it's technically correct that you can't (again, AFAIK) earn lifetime top-tier on OW, you can earn a lifetime elite level that corresponds, broadly, to *A top-tier.
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*I
know this oversimplifies a bit, but the details don't affect the issue here.