Thx but did you notice the T&C?

*Terms & Conditions: This offer is only open to Etihad Guest members travelling in Business or First cabins. Bonus miles are offered on all flights booked between 29 December until 31 January for travel between 5 January and 31 March 2015.

Flight had to be booked after 29/12. Mine is scheduled for April 30 so neither lucky on that.

Oh sh*t..... Always forget to read the T&C

So no doubt now..... Will cr�dit them to AB

Any recommendations/sucesses for matching KLM Gold (skyteam) to a european airline in each of
o Skyteam
o Oneworld ( I fly inside Europe with BA now but have no status in oneworld)
o Star Alliance

Turkish for star alliance
Air Berlin for OW

I received email offering match at 4pm, I replied immediately that I accept the match offer, and at 8pm received email that I was gold!

Did they (air Berlin ) match you just by you sending a copy of your Gulfair gold card or did you send a statement of your flights with gulf air? Or did you send a copy of another frequent flier card?


Yes... Unfortunately many have had this problem with the delay... But there goes the saying "don't look a gift horse in the mouth"!

Well, if after your status match expires, you could always open a new frequent flier account with the same airline, and ask again for the status match - you will probably have to use a different email address.

Just sent copy of the gulf card.
Never flown with them

You probably need new mailing address as well. Since most airlines don't cancel membership then you will need a tons of physical addresses for them to send you your new cards.

Wow! thats quite strange, because they refused to match my status with my aegean gold, even though i had around 40 flights on the years statement which i sent them, and then just like that they match you to gold by a copy of your gulf air gold card, without any flights!

When I asked Hilton for a match for my silver Marriott, they offered me fast track to gold (5 stays or 10 nights within 90 days - which is only offered once in a lifetime). When 90 days past, without those requirements being met, i opened another account, with a different email address, and a different mailing address, then asked for a match from my silver marriott, and again was given fast track to gold. I asked if in the meantime they could give me silver as a proper match, they replied yes, and gave me silver. Right after I got silver, I changed the address on my new account to the same as the one on my old account.
So even if you are right that you have to put a new mailing address for registration, or until you get the match, you can always put in a friend's address temporarily, and then change it after registration or after receiving the match.
All this depends on how desperate you would be for the match!!

(And by the way, i recently signed up for the UK Hilton credit card, which automatically gives the card holder silver status, so i didn't gain much)

I also remember seeing (i think somewhere in this thread) that Turkish will match again to gold - even if you have been matched before!

And KiteM - you can now add to your flyertalk profile - "program affiliates" - Air Berlin Gold.

They don't match Aegean gold.
You have to:
- Ask Gulfair to match your Aegean gold
- Ask AirBerlin to match your Gulfair gold

Not yet received their confirmation email.

I replied them immediately but received this automatic reply

And on their website my account is still Classic.

So, I hope they'll do it today

Yes - I was just noting how strange that is, that they match Gulf air gold without any flight statements, but don't match Aegean gold even though I sent them a year's statement with over 40 flights!
The reason why Air Berlin (or any airline for that matter) would status match is because you have elite status with another airline, so obviously you would prefer to fly with that other airline, so in order to encourage you to fly Air Berlin as well, they give you elite status too.
Now if someone shows them that he flies Aegean and other Star alliance flights many times a year, Air Berlin should see that as a challenge, so they should match - but they don't, but suddenly when someone shows them a Gulf air gold card, even without proof of any flights, they match it (when they could assume that maybe he got it as a special promotion or because of a credit card etc.).
And besides, the Aegean destinations are much more similar to the Air Berlin destinations, which Air Berlin should see as a challenge, and give matches to Aegean gold customers who will prefer to fly Aegean (or other Star Alliance members) and get 4 free upgrades a year when flying Aegean, etc. whereas Gulf air who are based in Bahrain - their destinations is far less similar to Air Berlin in order to be seen a challenge to Air Berlin.
So, why Air Berlin give matches for Gulf Air gold and not Aegean gold just baffles me!
(Unless I am mistaken, and there are other motives for giving status matches - but I can't think of any - what would those be?)

I completely agree with you....that' weird.
Probably AB thinks it's harder to become gold on GulfAir rather than Aegean.

Was surprised with how quick my status match with TK was approved. I'm currently a KFEG member. I sent my request through the M&S customer service feedback link on the 9th of January and when I checked my account on the 11th of January, my status has been changed to Elite.