gurka

I've been collecting with AC now since 2003 and it's time to move to United since my flying is mostly United based now living on the west coast. I still use AC for personal travel from Toronto to South America, but my bulk of work travel is on United and would like to get Global status.

My question is - can I move my status to United or do I have to suffer a year of no status on United while i collect points with them? I am zone 1 now, and that is actually the only thing I care about - getting on early with room to spare for my carry-on. I want the same sort of status on United - now I have zone 2 with them which is good enough, but if there is a way to transfer my status somehow, would be grateful for any advice on how to do this. Westjet keeps offering me status recognition but not worth anything to me. If they recognize my status I could get some upgrades, something I can't do at all now.

PS: flew American for the first time the other day in years and wow was it shockingly bad. SFO to ORD with NO TV's, NO chargers. Who the hell flies like this? I can't believe they get away with this. Even AC has better facilities on board then AA.

24left

You can't transfer status for one airline to another. You can apply to do a Status Match or Challenge. UA, AA and DL have them.

AFAIK, UA GS is spend based and it varies based on where you live. Are you asking about the UA 1K or UA GS?

There are those on this forum who are UA 1K so I'll assume they have more info, but you might want to ask these questions on the UA forum.

Also, if WS is offering you status of some sort, only you can determine if it of value to you.

Ah, sounds like perhaps you got one of the pre-merger USAir aircraft.
Lots of discussion on this topic the AA forum.

yul36

deleated

yul36

UA will not status match. They will usually allow a challenge, fly so many miles in so many months. Historically they will not do this from a Star Partner, though there have been exceptions. If you were to be WS gold, you might be able to get a gold challenge from UA.
I think at the time I did it ( CX Gold ) it was fly 20K miles in 90 days. Nice thing is they gave you the status straight away during the qualifying period. There is an extensive thread on this forum with all the info.

Adam Smith

I've found AA's hard product to be wildly variable.

The old MD-8xs need to head for the scrap heap ASAP (and will be there soon). The ex-US planes I've been on have also been atrocious.

However, they have some brand-new 319s and 321s whose hard product is light years ahead of AC's and UA's - comfortable leather seats and huge in-seat IFE. The E75s (same seats, no IFE) and refurbished 738s are also quite good. The non-refurbished 738s (if there are any still left) have interiors of comparable vintage to AC's 320 fleet.

UA's narrowbodies are more uniformly mediocre.

Symmetre

Per yul36, UA won't status match or challenge AC, since they're partners in the same alliance. So your options are to status match someone else outside of *a (like DL or AA) then try to get UA to match/challenge that ... or suck it up and continue with what you have, and start crediting to UA at the start of the year.

gurka

What do they typically ask for a challenge match verification perspective?

LoveHateRelationship

UA only matches up to Platinum, the details are below.

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/app...omoCode=TB8230

You might be able to do it in a roundabout way, I think Alaska will match you from AC and you might be able to take that and do a status challenge with UA which I've heard of people doing but YMMV.

gurka

Easy way is to get a AA status report from my friend, quickly PS it and send it in. Direct Challenge bypassing the Alaska or Virgin or some other airline i will never fly.

yyz_atc_qq

That's not true. They won't match, but they will challenge. Even AC to UA. You just need a good story. That's how I started with UA.