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Lifetime status by airline -- attempted summary

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Old Aug 9, 2016, 6:53 am
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Sky Team
  • AF/KL: Lifetime Platinum (ST E+) after 10 consecutive years of membership at the Platinum level
  • DL: Lifetime Gold (ST E+), then Platinum (ST E+), then Diamond (ST E+) and finally DL 360 (ST E+) after 1M, 2M, 3M and 5MM respectively of Butt in Seat miles, i.e. from any ST flights. Any existing MM balance will be honored at 1:1 ratio
  • KE: Morning Calm Premium (ST E+) @ 500,000 miles on any ST flights; Lifetime Million Miler (ST E+) after 1M miles on any ST flights; the SKYPASS program changes on 1 February 2024, so lifetime tiers are only achievable until then
  • SK : Lifetime Gold (ST E+) after 10 consecutive years of membership at Gold or higher level
  • VN: ST E+ after 1 million qualifying miles accumulated from taking VN-coded flights, operated by Vietnam Airlines since enrollment
  • VS: Lifetime Gold after (1) earning 7500 tier points AND 10 years consecutive Gold status, or (2) fly 1 million revenue miles
Star Alliance
  • AC: on AC metal flights only (incl. AC Jazz and AC Rouge) -- lifetime 50K (Elite) (*G) after 1M miles; lifetime 75K after 2M miles; lifetime 100K (SuperElite) after 3M miles; Class of Service bonus counts towards lifetime status
  • AV: Member must earn 1MM (Lifetime Gold, *G) via AV and affiliate metal, be 60 years of age AND be a LifeMiles or previous program member for 15 years. 2MM gives Lifetime Diamond. Program is called CENIT
  • CA: Lifetime Platinum (*G) after 1M km on CA-coded and CA-operated flights only, or 1M km on ZH-coded and ZH-operated flights only, or 2M km across CA group of airlines (CA, ZH, SC, KY, NX)
  • LH: Lifetime FTL (*S) after 30,000 QP (qualifying points). Lifetime Senator (*G) after 40,000 QP.
  • MS: Lifetime Platinum (*G) after 1M miles on MS flights and all *A flights (but this is now grandfathered as of 20/01/2020, it is no longer possible to achieve LT Platinum after that date)
  • NH: 500k (NH Metal) - , 1MM (NH Metal) - (1)No mileage expiration, (2)Superflyers Card, 2MM/3MM (NH Metal) - (3)F Suite lounge access on NH Metal and (1) and (2)
  • OZ: Lifetime Diamond Plus (*G) after 500,000 miles on *A flights/ 500 OZ flights. Lifetime Platinum after 1M *A flights/ 1k OZ flights
  • SA: Lifetime Platinum (*G) after 6 consecutive years of membership at the Platinum level or alternatively: 720 000 SAA Tier Miles** during a minimum of 4 consecutive years and to a maximum of 6 consecutive years on Platinum status by earning at least 120 000 SAA Tier Miles in each year
  • TP: Lifetime Gold (*G) and Lifetime Navigator (*G) status at 2M and 3M miles earned from TAP flights counted from 1998.
  • UA: Lifetime Gold (*G), Platinum (*G), 1K (*G), GS (*G) after 1M, 2M, 3M, 4M respectively of Butt in Seat miles, but only flown on UA/UAX metal (no longer CM). 1MM regardless if holding higher status may only share Premier Gold with a companion. 2MMs and up may share their higher status (if earned) with one companion as of 2027. "Daisy chaining" is no longer permitted, previously any Million Miler who also earned a higher status was able to share it with another MM who then could pass it on to an additional person. If a MM chooses to share their status with someone, the MM cannot inherit status from another.
Oneworld
  • AA: Lifetime Gold (OW Ruby), Platinum (OW Sapphire) after 1M, 2M miles. Lifetime Platinum Pro (OW Emerald) at 4M and Executive Platinum (OW Emerald) at 5M. (BiS only; used to be all miles earned before Dec 2011)
  • AS: 1MM earns lifetime MVP Gold (OW Sapphire) and Gold 75K (OW Emerald) at 2MM. AS metal only. MM's receive complimentary meals in Main Cabin as well as an annual boost of 20 000 Elite Qualifying miles. MMs may share their current status (if higher than their MM tier) with one companion.
  • AY: Lifetime Gold (OW Sapphire) 2M tier points; Lifetime Platinum (OW Emerald) after 3.3M tier points
  • BA: Lifetime Gold (OW Emerald) at 550,000 tier points; Lifetime GGL at 1 500,000 tier points as of April 1st 2025. Before, 35,000 tier points for GfL and 100,000 for GGLfL. Current LT tier points balance will be converted based on your percentage from reaching a lifetime tier. E.g. 17 500 is 50% of GfL which will be converted to 275,000 under the new system.
  • IB: Lifetime Infinita (OW Emerald) 400,000 Elite Points since you signed up to the Iberia Plus programme; Infinita Prime (OW Emerald) 640,000 Elite Points as of as of April 1st 2025. Before, 125,000 tier points for Infinita and 200,000 for Infinita Prime. Historical LT tier points balance will be converted based on your percentage from reaching a lifetime tier. E.g. 160 000 is 80% of Infinita Prime which will be converted to 512 000 under the new system.
  • QF: Lifetime Silver (OW Ruby) after 7,000 status credits: Lifetime Gold (OW Sapphire) after 14,000 status credits; Lifetime Platinum (OW Emerald) after 75,000 status credits
  • JL: Lifetime OW Sapphire with JAL Global Club Three Star or higher (1500 Life Status Points)
Non aligned airlines
  • LA: 15 years or more of Black or Black Signature status since the year 2000 grants Lifetime Black (2nd highest tier in program) and 20 years or more of Platinum or higher membership since 2000 will get you Lifetime Platinum (mid tier status)
  • LY: ​​The Matmid Frequent Flyer Club awards lifelong Gold membership to members aged 67 and over, they held Gold, Platinum or Top Platinum member​ship through consecutive 10 years​.​
  • PR: Mabuhay Miles Million Miler membership is earned by those who collect 1,000,000 tier miles
  • VA: To qualify for Forever Gold, your balance (calculated from 1 February 2013 onwards) must reach a total of 12,000 Status Credits, with a minimum of 9,000 Status Credits earned on eligible Virgin Australia marketed flights, flown by you
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Lifetime status by airline -- attempted summary

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Old Mar 5, 2016 | 3:56 pm
  #61  
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Originally Posted by Palal
CA is not in *A
CA is Air China and a Star Alliance member http://www.iata.org/publications/Pages/code-search.aspx
http://www.staralliance.com/en/member-airlines

Useful summary Overview of Frequent Flyer Programs by FLYGVA. Includes life time status, but may be up to date

Last edited by Mwenenzi; Mar 5, 2016 at 4:58 pm Reason: adeed FLYGVA link
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Old Mar 5, 2016 | 4:52 pm
  #62  
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AA offers Lifetime Gold at 1MM and Lifetime Platinum at 2MM. Miles can be earned as qualifying miles on any oneWorld carrier as well as selected partners. Note: it's flown miles only, there are no 500 mile minimums even for elites.
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Old Mar 5, 2016 | 6:55 pm
  #63  
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Originally Posted by welltravelled88
AA: Lifetime Platinum after 2M miles from any source
This is several years out of date. AA only includes BiS now.
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Old Mar 6, 2016 | 8:38 am
  #64  
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Originally Posted by welltravelled88
AA: Lifetime Platinum after 2M miles from any source [However, NB: as AA Platinum, you get no lounge access in AA lounges when travelling on AA domestically, while you would get access as OW Sapphire with another airline, right ?]
As already noted, it's not from any source any more. That ended in December 2011. (Any Million Miler miles you earned from any source before December 2011 count, but from December 2011 onward only "butt-in-seat" miles count.)

There's Lifetime Gold after 1M Million Miler miles, and Lifetime Platinum after 2M Million Miler miles.

Yes, Platinum only gets you lounge access on days your flying internationally. But if you choose to get lifetime status on another OW airline, while flying AA, you have to give up lots of other perks (including upgrades) on AA for an extremely high number of flights to do so.

Meanwhile, who knows how this will work ten years from now. And anyone choosing today which airline to start collecting lifetime miles at is likely to need at least ten years to get to second-level-up lifetime.

So I don't see the point of pursuing lifetime status with another OW airline (if that's going to take anywhere around 1MM of flying AA) when you can buy domestic lounge access for just a few hundred dollars a year (or get it with a credit card that costs a few hundred dollars a year).

Originally Posted by welltravelled88
DL: Lifetime Silver, then Gold, then Platinum, then Executive Platinum
Executive Platinum is an AA status (which is not available in lifetime form). The status at Delta above Platinum is called Diamond.


Originally Posted by welltravelled88
attempted summary: lifetime status
There's lifetimes status at hotel chains too. If you're not going to cover those here, then I suggest you notify an operator to fix the thread title, as it's not clear from the current thread title that it's about alliance airlines only.

(No, not everyone might care about only alliance airlines. In the US specifically, some people might prefer to pursue lifetime status with Alaska if that's available.)

And be careful about all many-year-plans. Could you have predicted 10+ years ago that US would shift for *A to OW, and thus that any liftetime status there would shift from one alliance to another? That happened in South America too, when TAM shifted the same way when it was acquired by LAN. How do you some more of these (not founding) airlines of an alliance won't shift alliances in the next decade or two?

So i think it's much safer, if you're after a particular alliance, to pursue lifetime status with a founding member of that alliance rather than some second-tier member of the alliance.

And, btw, speaking of hotel chains, it's not necessarily unrelated to airlines: Marriott has a tie-in with United, whereby Marriott Platinum members can get complimentary United Silver status (but no higher level). As long as that continues, Marriott Lifetime Platinum is a backdoor way of effectively getting (maybe) lifetime United Silver.

Last edited by sdsearch; Mar 6, 2016 at 8:49 am
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Old Mar 6, 2016 | 10:49 am
  #65  
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Originally Posted by sdsearch
As long as that continues, Marriott Lifetime Platinum is a backdoor way of effectively getting (maybe) lifetime United Silver.
And vice versa. Gold on United gets you Gold on Marriott.
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Old Mar 6, 2016 | 10:59 am
  #66  
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Originally Posted by daumueller
First comment: BM left Star years ago
And it is BD, not BM. :-:

Wiki created and some of the more egregious errors fixed. Feel free to update it rather than just posting comments here.
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Old Mar 6, 2016 | 12:00 pm
  #67  
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Updated the wiki on OZ

Finnair offers lifetime status too.
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Old Mar 6, 2016 | 9:41 pm
  #68  
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I didn't think LH lifetime senator was an official thing than was only based on this?
SK has a similar thing, lifetime gold after 10 years of EBG if aged above 60. Does not need to be consecutive. However it's being updated this summer.
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Old Jun 17, 2016 | 8:22 pm
  #69  
 
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KE 500k mile requirement for lifetime status, does that need to be achieved within 10 years? I can't see my wife achieving that within that time frame :/
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Old Aug 7, 2016 | 11:35 am
  #70  
 
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Originally Posted by studentCPH
SK has a similar thing, lifetime gold after 10 years of EBG if aged above 60. Does not need to be consecutive. However it's being updated this summer.
Do you think it will disappear?
I couldn't find any information about it on their website.
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Old Aug 8, 2016 | 4:20 pm
  #71  
 
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Originally Posted by garethlewis
KE 500k mile requirement for lifetime status, does that need to be achieved within 10 years? I can't see my wife achieving that within that time frame :/
https://www.koreanair.com/global/en/...els-table.html
I don't see anything on KE's website to indicate that limitation. The only listed parameter is miles flown.



On an unrelated note, it's worth noting that SA will grant Lifetime Platinum not only for 6 years of Platinum status, but also for 720,000 Tier Miles acquired over 4-6 consecutive years. At 6 years it balances out to qualifying for Plat normally, but if you can average 180,000 Tier Miles in four years you will get lifetime *A Gold that way. Not quite as good a deal as OZ, but still a solid option especially if you fly to Africa at all.
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Old Aug 9, 2016 | 6:40 am
  #72  
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Originally Posted by fassy
SK gives life-time EuroBonus Gold for being 60+ years old and must have qualified 10 years (not necessarily consecutive) of SK*G
Update: SK dropped the 60+ years requirement. 10 years holding (not necessarily consecutive) Gold or Diamond status will grant lifetime SK EuroBonus (A*) Gold.
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Old Jul 20, 2017 | 10:02 pm
  #73  
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Shall we add NH in this master thread?

Just to provide some additional information, as NH launched the LT status a few years ago, which also included miles flown on award tickets, but you have to retroactively request it.

https://www.ana.co.jp/wws/us/e/asw_c...miler-program/

I wondered what other FFPs allow award tickets to be credited as LT miles.
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Old Jul 22, 2017 | 4:34 am
  #74  
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Originally Posted by PaulInTheSky
I wondered what other FFPs allow award tickets to be credited as LT miles.
Whilst not strictly award tickets, British Airways allows their award points (avios) to be used to discount the cash price of any normal revenue fare. Flights purchased in this way will count towards status.

A number of hotel chains allow award nights to count towards status.
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Old Jul 22, 2017 | 4:23 pm
  #75  
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Seems to be missing Air Canada:

1MM lifetime AC Elite 50k (*Gold)
2MM lifetime AC Elite 75k (*Gold) plus AC Elite 50k (*Gold) for a nominee
3MM lifetime AC SuperElite 100k (*Gold)

Miles are status miles including CoS on AC only
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