Southwest / AirTran is showing the LUV have changed this policy based on input from people on FlyerTalk! Call into the AirTran Elite desk and they will match your status on Southwest A-List. Same for those that call into Southwest that matched Southwest. The key: you have to have EARNED status on one of the two airlines.

Flying Delta as we speak TPA-ATL-TUS rather than TPA-PHX on Southwest, a decision I made while the status bait and switch was the policy. It costs me three hours but my upgrades came through on both legs, because I could actually use the FF program at Delta.

How is what they were doing a policy that has now changed? What were they wanting us to do, fly both airlines separately in a balanced fashion and earn status on each? I think it was just a blunder, the people running this merger have no clue about how these programs interact.

Thanks, JoeFlyer, for the info! Will have to give SWA a call...just in case I'm ever forced to fly them.

Point of clarification. I earned status on FL. Do I call WN's FF line or can the FL Elite team do it?

Definitely call FL's elite line; they can take care of it with an immediate upgrade to your WN status.

I am a current FL elite, and as recently as January 11th my WN BPs were printing with A-List even through I only had two segments on WN last year.

But checking in for a flight today I got the back of the bus, so I called the FL elite line. A very friendly and professional telephone rep asked for my A+ and RR numbers, then asked me to hold for a few minutes.

She came back with the good news that she was able to comp me A-List, but warned me that it was only because I flew on WN last year. She said, "It looks like you only flew with them twice, but they let me give it to you anyway." I asked how many segments they would have liked to have seen, or how many I would need this year to get A-List next year, and she said there was no set amount. Just something else to be aware of.

Same thing happened to me. I just called FL Elite line, woman was very nice, put me on hold to "check with [her] supervisor," and returned to say that they would do it as a courtesy, but I would need to fly WN more this year to keep it (I had one painful RT in 2012).
I, too, asked if there was a certain number of flights I needed to take and she said, "No, not really. But one wouldn't be enough."

That's what I like- a firm plan!

Interesting.

I was granted A-List status for 2012 based on my FL A+ Elite status; I had planned on calling to try to renew A-List for 2013 based on my still being FL A+. However, I just now logged into WN and saw that I still have A-List status somehow (I only flew ~4 paid WN flights in 2012). Maybe WN has started automatically applying status matching?

FWIW, my FL A+ Elite status expires in May.