Last month I decided to give Emirates a try and booked a big Australia-Europe flight in J on Emirates. There were many legs and the quote was around AUD$14k.

After reading about status matching, I emailed them my Qantas Platinum info (which showed a huge spend in long haul flying, all in J class) and asked if they would consider status matching me. I indicated that, as Dubai would be a convenient stopover between Australia and Europe I would consider doing my european travel with them.

However I didn't even receive a response. Nothing. As I have never flown Emirates this did not give me a good feeling about their customer service.

So I promptly cancelled my $14k ticket and booked on Qantas.

Anyway, above FYI for those wanting to status match. I heard some people have had success but not for me.

I always had best success by calling EK on the phone.

Chatterbocks, I can appreciate the frustration. I've no experience with Skywards and status matching - and we've heard different stories on the board.

You may have had a better outcome if you had have actually flown the sectors (ie your original itinerary) and then made the status match request. It also helps to put these requests through the local EK sales offices - as I can assure you a local sales manager is going to be keen for your business with the sort of spend you have - regardless if whether or not that comes via an agency or direct.

I cannot see why whether they status match or not is a big deal given that the travel is in business class. If really doing frequent business trips to UK (rather than just trying to scam a match) (I assume london due to using QF instead), then 1st trip will get silver and the 2nd will get gold anyway (unless a saver and will be just short after 2). The only real difference is that can take a guest in the lounge and some extra FF miles

Each to their own but I would rate EK's service significantly better than QF's and the EK scheme much better than the QF one ( based on comparing as a QF Platinum member)

If travelling to Europe regularly, I would recommend EK but would also recommend doing a 1 way journey to position in Europe and then start doing r/ts from Europe since r/t EK 1st class fares from London to Australia are under $10000 with business starting at around $6500 and from nearby locations even cheaper. e.g. AMS from $4700 r/t in business and FRA at $8300 in 1st class

Significant savings to be had

The main issue was not receiving any reply at all which just gave me a bad feeling about the airline as it was my one and only interaction with them. Responsiveness and contactability is one of the things I like about Qantas. The exact opposite end of the spectrum would be a US airline - any time I have needed to contact a US airline whilst travelling in the USA, I found it next to impossible to talk to a real life person.

I had a status match few days ago, though it took about 2 months to have a reply

Based on what?/ reason

The reason of getting the status match?

I told them that I would consider travelling with EK if a status match was given to me.

Cheers^

Funny bcause i did the same a few weeks ago and they are not very willing to help (yet)

I have just had comfirmation of Gold Status Match by Etihad Airways
Its taken a good 2 months to complete and i have my first flight with them in September.
I am not expecting the same level of service as emirates, But their members program seems to be a lot better.

Malc

Do you mind sharing how you got that done?

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...l#post16557475

anyone ever had EK match GF Gold status?

Hello All,

I wanted to share my status match experience with EK. Yesterday, I just got my Skywards Gold status after being status matched to my SQ PPS Club (* A Gold) membership. Prior to this I was only a regular Blue member with only 1 flight (BKK-HKG) in F credited on my EK account.

Majority of my flight miles on SQ were on Y (about a trip a month from SFO-Asia) for the past 6 months and 2 SQ RTW's in F + 1 J class RT from SFO to India in the past 18 months. Here are the steps that I followed :

1) Sent a message through Skywards.com stating that I travel international extensively and attached a copy of my PPS statement showing the flight credits. I did emphasize in my note that SQ PPS Club membership is based on $$ spent on premium travel not on miles earned.

2) Called up Skywards customer service 2 days later and was informed that my request is in the system and that it was forwarded to EK Regional Sales office in California (my residence) for review.

3) Immediately hung up and called the SF Sales office. Person I spoke to was very helpful. She mentioned they had not received an email from Skywards CS but took down my info and requested me to forward the text of the email that I sent via Skywards.com and the attachment with my account statement to her email id.

4) She sent me a note within 48 hours stating that I was now gold - and I was able to verify that by logging into Skywards.

All in all a very positive experience with the status match. Currently on vacation with family in Cape town and flying back to SFO in Y - hope to make use of the priority check-in and lounge access in DXB! ^

Thats for sharing the knowledge! ^