austerewanderlust

Haven't had any luck after a quick search of the forums, so I figured I would come to the experts.

I am currently a UA 1K with status through 30 Jan 20 and given some life changes/their upcoming program changes, I am seeking to switch to Delta. I've gone through their website and spoke to an agent regarding timing and have not received an actual answer.

I will be doing a trip in late March (21-28) that would more than exceed the status match/challenge requirements that I would require. To anyone's knowledge here, if I submit my status match on or about 12/28, would it be considered a successful challenge if I traveled on those dates in March?

Thanks again and apologies if this has already been answered elsewhere.

muaddib89

I think you should be ok, and based on my experience of doing a DL challenge earlier this year, here's why:

• Your trip ends March 28, so you'd need the challenge to end after March 28.
• Challenges start the day that they process your request, not the day you apply.
• It took about 5 days for my request to be processed (I applied on January 31st and the challenge began on February 5). Their language in the automated email after I applied said "Status Match Challenge requests are usually reviewed within 5 business days, but please allow up to 2 weeks."

So if you apply on 12/28 and end up having a ~5 day lag between applying and DL processing it, your challenge would begin in the first couple days of January, putting your March 21-28 trip well within the 3 month period of the challenge.

FYI, here's the email I received on February 5th after applying for the challenge on January 31:

austerewanderlust

Thank you so much for the detailed response. Just one point of clarification, did you status match off of a status that was expiring at the end of January 2019 or something that was valid for a longer period?

muaddib89

Oh good question: I was matching off a status that was expiring after January 2019 (Alaska MVP Gold thats good through the end of this year). Thats another second issue that you could consider too: I don't know how the expiry of your 1k on January 31 factors into this, like whether you could apply in January 2020 on your 2019 status and have it be considered still good by DL for a 2020 status challenge. I can't find any language saying you can do that, but then again I can't find any saying you can't... But if you weren't able to get any solid info from DL agents already, I highly doubt you'd be able to get a definitive answer. Sorry, good luck!