I suspect Etihad received a larger response than expected. Jetblue and Alaska responded within two weeks of my match requests.

I have *A SG with NZ but would really, really like a OW status match.

Which is my best bet for an airline to contact for this? Air Berlin? I would ideally like a full 12 month match without a challenge.

IIRC there are currently no oneworld carriers offering this. airberlin might be the best option with 4-5 months to complete their challenge.

This is my understanding of a challenge. Most airlines do not send out actual cards until you complete the challenge, all benefits should normally be granted though during the challenge period :confused: My understanding of a match is comping status for an entire qualification period, so for 1 or 2 years.

Then you are correct, I had another understanding of challenge.

I thought a challenge would give you no benefits, but an easier path to status (instead of 50000 miles in a year, 17000 in 4 months, etc.), or reduced benefits (such as airline benefits, but not alliance benefits).

AB gives you full benefits, but a reduced period. So I would consider this a match, and the challenge conditions are not difficult, especially if you time your match to just before a long flight, etc. Sadly, I timed mine badly, and had to cancel my travel, so I won't complete the gold challenge, and I'll be lucky if I manage to get Silver status.

I heard it is difficult to get them to match NZ, as they don't see them as a competitor, and people matching with them are likely doing so for OW only. And, they will not give you a 12 month, but 4 month with the conditions for retaining status as I wrote a a bit higher in the thread.

I tried status matching my AA Plat (OW Sapphire) with TK. Had a prompt reply but this is what they said:

We have received your e-mail message dated 02.08.2013

Please be informed that only Star Alliance Gold , Skyteam Elite Plus and Oneworld Emerald members have an opportunity for Status Match.

Therefore we are sorry that we are unable to meet your demand positively.

What email address did you send your info?

Well it looks like the US/AA merger is going to happen.....

Any thoughts on who might match US Gold to a another *A carrier?

I was hoping United might step to the plate....

Success finally. No email but I just logged in today to check a rez and my status is now GOLD, with a note:
13-Aug-2013 Etihad Guest Gold Card dispatched

You might want to hold on to your US GLD, the merger got a big hiccup, have you checked with Aegean or UA?

What is the hiccup? I haven't read anything about that...

NM, I just learned that I could google anything rather than asking a dumb question.

DOJ anti-trust suit
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...ts-please.html

Etihad sucked. Entered, didn't get a response until I checked like three times and told i wasn't signed up early enough.

They cherry pick the people they 'want' to match. Not sure about their roster.

I was prepared to buy EY Tix and it was getting super close to my departure so i chased the match up with them sending me a negative reply. Ended up buying Lifemiles and flew SQ Business.

So far my experience with all of the middle east carriers pretty much sucked in terms of quality and correspondence. I will gladly abstain. :td:

Has anyone had luck to Status Match to Bangkok Airways Elite Program ?

I'm based in BKK and on some routes BKK Airways is really a great alternative.