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Ay+Plat also gives you Star Alliance Gold and SkyTeam Elite Plus

Ay+Plat also gives you Star Alliance Gold and SkyTeam Elite Plus

Old Dec 9, 2015, 5:02 am
  #1  
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Cool Ay+Plat also gives you Star Alliance Gold and SkyTeam Elite Plus

Many of you know the status match campaigns currently run by Turkish Airlines and Alitalia, among others. I recently scored a *A Gold status valid until 10/2017 and SkyTeam Elite Plus status valid until 03/2017 with my AY+Plat. All this information is also available at corresponding threads, but I thought of making a summary here.

Turkish Airlines (*A):
I followed the instructions available here: http://dcta.boardingarea.com/2015/02...-status-match/

I attached a single PDF with:
  • Photo of the front of my Finnair Platinum card (it's a Diners Club combo card and I blurred out the CC number)
  • Copy of my passport photo page
  • Screenshots of my Finnair transactions from the past 3 years from the webpages, as the printout doesn't state the tier level
  • Excel printout of my Flight Diary (http://flightdiary.net/Unsub)

My message was: "Please find attached a PDF of my One World Emerald (Finnair Platinum) Frequent Flyer Card and my account history with Finnair and flight history with all airlines. Also a copy of my passport is attached in the PDF. Please kindly process a status match to Turkish Airlines Elite (Star Alliance Gold). Thank you in advance. With Best Regards.."

The status match took little over 12 hours after posting the request with the online form. I got matched to TK Elite, which was expected.

Alitalia (SkyTeam):
Official instructions here: http://www.alitalia.com/gb_en/millem...tus-match.html

I emailed them with a scanned .png file of my AY+Plat card (it's a Diners Club combo card and I blurred out the CC number). Sent a kind reminder email after waiting for the mentioned 8 working days processing time without a reply. After another 8 days without a reply, I sent the same email with the attachment in .pdf format. Next morning after logging in to Alitalia pages, I was matched to Freccia Alata Plus Club. It might have happened sooner though, as I didn't log in to check daily. I got no email replies at any point.

My message was: "Dear Receiver, Please find attached a photo of my Finnair Platinum (One World Emerald) Frequent Flyer Card as a proof of my Tier Level. Please kindly process a status match to MilleMiglia Freccia Alata Plus Club. Thank you in advance, With Best Regards.."

Apparently they have a soft landing upon expiry, which will give me SkyTeam Elite Plus level for another year, until 03/2018. Note that this promo only runs until 31th January.


Last edited by Unsub; Dec 30, 2015 at 12:13 am Reason: Soft landing gives ST Elite Plus, not just Elite. Added photo. Alitalia promo extended.
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Old Dec 9, 2015, 6:13 am
  #2  
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Yes, this works :-)

You went down the "too much documents are better then too little" road, I didn't send any passport info or flight journal to TK. Seems that they updated/changed their T&C, they offered validity until 3/16 or 3/17 depending on the validity of the matched FFP, but you got 10/17

BTW I already renewed TK until 2019 - not a big deal if one flies them longhaul C once or twice.

(and if one has a top tier hotel card, this is/was the time to get some more at Hilton and Hyatt )
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Old Dec 9, 2015, 8:47 am
  #3  
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Yeah, I did the TK match as well. Skyteam is not so valuable to me. But let's see..

And yep, it's crazy in the hotel land. I was fast and managed to match my Hilton Gold (earned by honest STAYING in the freakin' hotels) to Hyatt Diamond. Then I turned around and matched that to Hilton Diamond.
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Old Dec 9, 2015, 9:36 am
  #4  
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Originally Posted by WilcoRoger
Yes, this works :-)

You went down the "too much documents are better then too little" road
Yes, discussion on the dedicated thread suggested that they're going to ask for them anyway. I figured I'll save the time and effort with one shot. The match was extremely fast, but can't say if the material helped or not.

Originally Posted by WilcoRoger
they offered validity until 3/16 or 3/17 depending on the validity of the matched FFP, but you got 10/17
10/17 was for TK as they gave me 2 years right out the gate. Alitalia gave me 3/17 as my Ay+Plat is valid until 9/16, but if soft landing from a matched status is really true, it will give me ST Elite+ until 3/18.

Last edited by Unsub; Dec 9, 2015 at 10:57 am
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Old Dec 9, 2015, 11:14 am
  #5  
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Originally Posted by SPBanker
And yep, it's crazy in the hotel land. I was fast and managed to match my Hilton Gold (earned by honest STAYING in the freakin' hotels) to Hyatt Diamond. Then I turned around and matched that to Hilton Diamond.
You were lucky to get HHGold matched to Hyatt Diamond ^

I had my SPG Plat (with stays!) matched to both Diamonds.

Best Western openly matches to their Diamond most top level everything. Club Carlson also matches up to Gold (even SK EB status!). Let's see what Marriott has up its sleeves
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Old Dec 9, 2015, 1:27 pm
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Originally Posted by WilcoRoger
You were lucky to get HHGold matched to Hyatt Diamond ^
Thanks! Yes, I was lucky to read the relevant info early enough before they shut the floodgates...
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Old Dec 10, 2015, 4:43 am
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Now waiting for AY to start the matching game

Avianca Gold - ^(matched from BA silver) - to AY G

-j
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Old Dec 10, 2015, 4:50 am
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Originally Posted by jouhka
Now waiting for AY to start the matching game

Avianca Gold - ^(matched from BA silver) - to AY G

-j
Ay unfortunately is rather stingy if they even offered challenges on a regular badis but pretty slim 😂
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Old Dec 10, 2015, 5:35 am
  #9  
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Well, even though we all love getting matched, we are also pretty aware of the fact that matching programs rarely is beneficial to the airline, right? So it might be a good thing that AY is not matching unless specific situations.

It would be another kettle of fish if AY were to see AY+ as a revenue source like AC did, and then flying wouldn't be a large part of either earnings or awards in that program. They could merge with s-etukortti or k-plussa... Watch how SK EB is working with Coop. Suddenly you actually can pay for your flights in bananas.
Funny as that might be, it is not my dream future for AY+...

Last edited by intuition; Dec 10, 2015 at 5:46 am Reason: making sense. more sense, at least
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Old Dec 10, 2015, 7:41 am
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Originally Posted by intuition
Well, even though we all love getting matched, we are also pretty aware of the fact that matching programs rarely is beneficial to the airline, right? So it might be a good thing that AY is not matching unless specific situations.

It would be another kettle of fish if AY were to see AY+ as a revenue source like AC did, and then flying wouldn't be a large part of either earnings or awards in that program. They could merge with s-etukortti or k-plussa... Watch how SK EB is working with Coop. Suddenly you actually can pay for your flights in bananas.
Funny as that might be, it is not my dream future for AY+...

Matches generally yea I would agree, case by case challenges I would bet bring more revenue then not as they can be set to count just flights flown on soecific airlines or even just ones own metal...

But not much lost here just my thoughts
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Old Dec 10, 2015, 9:28 am
  #11  
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Accor plat will soon have more use: Raffles, Fairmont, and Swisshtel acquired.

For the airline matches, nice to have but hard to keep...
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Old Dec 10, 2015, 10:20 am
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The same works also with AY+ Gold: However, when I tried to match my AY Gold directly with TK, my request was declined. (I should have done my homework i.e. googling better.) But when matching first with Alitalia and thereafter matching my Alitalia Freccia Alata/SkyTeam Elite Plus to TK, my request with TK wenth through.

Being a fresh AY Gold and being based in Luxembourg, where AY has no connections whatsoever, the two status matches seem to be the best benefits my AY Gold status has given/will give me in the near future.
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Old Dec 11, 2015, 11:15 pm
  #13  
 
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Originally Posted by loimu
The same works also with AY+ Gold: However, when I tried to match my AY Gold directly with TK, my request was declined. (I should have done my homework i.e. googling better.) But when matching first with Alitalia and thereafter matching my Alitalia Freccia Alata/SkyTeam Elite Plus to TK, my request with TK wenth through.

Being a fresh AY Gold and being based in Luxembourg, where AY has no connections whatsoever, the two status matches seem to be the best benefits my AY Gold status has given/will give me in the near future.
Didnt TK as for flight history on your AZ account or did you credit some flights there?
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Old Dec 11, 2015, 11:19 pm
  #14  
 
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Originally Posted by Unsub
Yes, discussion on the dedicated thread suggested that they're going to ask for them anyway. I figured I'll save the time and effort with one shot. The match was extremely fast, but can't say if the material helped or not.


10/17 was for TK as they gave me 2 years right out the gate. Alitalia gave me 3/17 as my Ay+Plat is valid until 9/16, but if soft landing from a matched status is really true, it will give me ST Elite+ until 3/18.
As far as I understand the AZ system which to say not very well or clear the softlanding from Freccia Alata Plus club would be to the levelnof Yulisses so only ST elite not the level with lounge access... We will see what the reality is soon enough I was too early to the game and matched my OWE with old card so I will lose my black card in match though I am OWE until 2/2017 not sure if it matters to me or not but its the principle 😂😀😃
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Old Dec 13, 2015, 6:17 am
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Originally Posted by kauppias
Didnt TK as for flight history on your AZ account or did you credit some flights there?
I did include my AZ points statement showing zero points and flights. Additionally, I included my AY and SK statements with several recent flights on both of them.

Based on what I have read online about the TK match, the procedure seems unintelligently mechanic and straight forward. Therefore I wouldn't be surprised if they a) denied the match if a points statement was not provided "because a points statement needs to be provided" but b) would match the status if just an empty points statement were provided just because the points statement is required criterion was fulfilled. I could be wrong here, though.
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