I've been reading about these but haven't been able to find anything on the airline websites.

Is it only for upper level elites?

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OK I found the super thread on status match, but I'm still not clear if it's a permament change (moving from AA to AS, for example) or a per flight only situation.

A status match is where you hold status with one airline and another airline will "match" your status, often only upto a certain level. The point of it from the program's persepctive is so that people that want to switch their loyalty can do so without totally starting over. It's usually once in a lifetime.

"up to a certain level" - not "as low as a certain level"? iow, is there a minimum elite this works for?

An airline may match a low or mid tier level, but probably not the highest.

For example, AA Gold (low) and Platinum (mid) may be matched by UA Premier (low) and Premier Executive (mid), but if you were Executive Platinum (top) on AA, UA would probably only "match" as high as Premier Executive (mid).

My experience with this is relatively limited, but have been matched once, from AC to SK - gold to gold. I think it is relatively easy for very frequent fliers - personally I have over 100K each year for the past 15 yrs.

Recently I asked for matching with Etihad, will post result :-)

Do you currently have status elite with any airline? If not, you don't have any status to match. If you do, and are bottom tier in one airline you might get a bottom tier match in another airline. Mid-tier might match to mid-tier. Some airlines, like AA, don't do status matches, they might offer you a challenge instead where you have to fly a certain amount within a short time period to demonstrate your flying patterns but can earn elite status more quickly. The status match generally lasts for the remainder of the current program year, and may, depending on when you do the match, extend into the next program year. Check out the individual airline threads, particularly the stickies at the top of each thread, for more information on status matches and challenges. Use the match wisely. As mentioned above, sometimes this is a once-in-a-lifetime offer. Don't do it just because you have one big trip coming up and hope to get an upgrade. Note that matches are not "permanent," you still have to requalify in order to keep your newly acquired elite status.

AA generally does not match any more, they offer a Gold or Platinum challenge instead.

I'm a AA gold, have been every year for over 5 years. As you can see by another thread of mine, I've been thinking about switching to AS for qualification for MVP for 2008 since I fly out of SEA. So I asked about the status match.

I think I'm going to stick with AA for 2008.

All you want to know about specific status matches is in the Status Match Master Thread. Check the post date on posts that intrigue you, though. Some of them are a bit old, and this information changes quickly since it's all about unwritten policies that respond to market conditions. Once you've narrowed it down to a specific airline or two, check their forums, which may have more information.

You might want to to a search in the Alaska Airlines forum for "status match" as there have been several discussions of it recently.

I guess I was editing my post to flip things around right about the time you posted -

If you have the Merrill + card and charge $20,000 per year, they will arrange for AA to do a status match for you. I ended up with AA Platinum for the last two years. Only fly them once a year but it's a nice little perk.

I did the match on UA Premier to AS MVP without problem 2 years ago.