The company I work for is opening a division in Atlanta. Since I formerly went to Chicago fairly frequently, I went for Elite on AA. Of course, DL dominates Atlanta, so I called Skymiles customer service and asked if they have any fast-track offers for Silver/Gold Medallion (i.e., 10,000 Q miles in a three month time frame). I forgot how this came up, but I did tell her I was AA Gold at the time (two weeks ago-now PLT.) She said something like, "the challenges are done through marketing, but why don't you just send them a copy of your AA Gold (now PLT) card, I'm pretty sure they'll give you complimentary equivalent Medallion status."

I was honestly shocked to hear this, but I'm pretty new to the miles and status game compared to many on here. I see a lot of people have elite on multiple airlines, is this kind of complimentary elite status real? I actually lost the address she gave me to send the copy (of the card) to, plus I'd rather just enroll in a challenge rather than sending a letter and waiting, only to find out the agent was talking about a shot in the dark. But I suppose there's nothing wrong with doing both. The Challenge can often mean making mileage runs, which I'm sure many would understand I'd rather avoid if possible.

Just wondered if anyone has heard of this (or gotten it)?

This is general practice with airlines in the US and is referred to by us as a comp. Just send them a copy of your card and statement and they will give you their equivalent status (exept for top tier-i.e Exec plat on AA).

Most airlines will only comp their status once, and may or may not comp their top-tier status (UA will not comp 1K).

I assume that most multiple status people on the board actually fly enough to maintain status on each of these airlines (since they would only have mulitple statuses for 1 year otherwise).

*cough*afang*cough*

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH (c) 2001 cigarman

This was two years ago, but my 500-employee company has about 150 regular travelers. United gave both the CEO and the President comp 1K and the rest of the executives and directors Premier Exec status.

Ticked me off, I tell ya!

RAD

All airlines will "give" their top status to people under the right circumstances. However, that's different from comping you based on status with another carrier.

Comping is typically for situations like yours, where someone for whatever reason wants to switch from one airline to another. There's a big barrier to switching: the "lock-in" of benefits like double miles and early boarding that people don't want to give up. The new airline can remove this barrier by giving the potential switcher comparable status.

That's also why they'll just do it once. If someone asks repeatedly, they smell a rat.

People who are comped one year have to requalify for status on their own after that, so if they don't fly much the airline that gave them comp status didn't lose much.

AA comped me PLT in May 1988 based on comparable Delta status. (The reasons I wanted to switch don't matter here). I requalified for PLT in the remaining 7 months, again in 1999, and for EXP in 2000. It was a good business decision on their part.