Airline Status Match Master Thread: 2009 - 2011

CO Insider has stated before on FT (search the CO forum) that status matches after June 1st will be valid through the next year.

Thank you, Savage, for the pointer on CO Insider's past repsonse. I will wait for a few more days before I request status match!

Lufthansa Italy status match has been extended to 31 May.

Does NW give the system wide upgrades upon getting a Plat status match or do you get them the following year?

Has anyone matched WN A-list to UA? Would it work, and at what level?

Wondering if some of you could shed some light :

I am *E with AC and would like to match with a One World Carrier and a someone in Skyteam.

The question is two fold:

I have accumulated lifetime of 700,000 miles with AA but currently have no status, and prefer CX, as I fly to Asia a lot...

I was once Platinum Medallion with DL, but everyone seems to be disappointed with them on here, and my fiancee flies NW all the time.

Which would you choose to match with ?

Also, I am current *E, but should be *SE by mid August. Would the match be better to do then, or now ?

Thanks,

Key word may be "after" June 1. I was status matched today (June 1) from NW Gold to CO Gold, but apparently only for this program year. I didn't see an expiration date on the website, so I called the elite line and was abruptly told matches are only for the current year (not a good first encounter with the CO elite line). I just sent an email back to confirm. Will post any further details that yields.

EDIT: Received email reply that my status is good through February 28, 2011! Guess I got a bad egg on my first call to the OP elite line. Regardless, this is great news...thanks FT!

On the Skyteam front, I'd give NW a try. Since they're merging with Delta, there's a chance (at least as I understand it) that your "one time match card" won't be punched on DL, even though they're going to be fully merged by late 2009. You'll receive the same benefits on DL with NW. I fly UA and DL pretty much exclusively and I've been happy with DL, as long as I don't have to deal with anyone in Atlanta. Had some bad experiences there, far worse than UA at ORD.


That's your call. I'd be nervous that NW won't be doing any more status matches after that time. You can always pull out your *SE next year with a DL status match if you need it. They might only match you to *E anyway. Results have been mixed as I understand it.

Does anyone have any recent experience getting UA 1K matched at AA to either Plat or EXP? (I would like to avoid paying for the challenge if I can.) I called today and the agent said that they would offer me the challenge but that's it -- but she was reading off a script and I didn't press much further. Any tips would be appreciated.

Right now I'm Plat on AA through Feb 2010 and Silver on DL through the same period.

Could I have NW match my AA Plat to NW Gold (since NW is going away anyway, I trust this won't impact anything with DL down the road) and since it's past June 1st, would that last until Feb 2011?

TIA for advice...

I might need to do a lot of US flying after having been a loyal UA member. In the OP I see that its implied that US does not status match but only offers Trial Preferred, however in the TP terms and conditions it says this:

"Members who have been granted Preferred status as a result of having elite status in another airline's program in the last 24 months or did not requalify for the same Preferred status in 2009 are not eligible to participate in the Trial Preferred program."

So they imply there IS a status match program. Anyone have any info on this?? (or if its buried somewhere in this thread, Lucky, can you add to the OP?)

I know I can use my UA number and gain the EQM and bonus miles at UA but no upgrades in US in any way? Which is better...? The bad thing is all my US flying is gonna be SEA-PHL-SEA transcons... oh... the pain...

I'm thinking of doing a status match with a US airline for domestic travel.

To be honest, I'm not too picky and currently am a *G cardholder with KrisFlyer. Am wondering though since I have UA membership (with no status) either to do a status match with UA or similar airlines such as AA or CO. Any opinions on this one?

I typically fly only around 10-20 flights domestically a year. Please help!

Hi, not sure if this is exactly the right place to pose this question, but no doubt you'll show me the door if it isn't!

I currently have no 'status' with any airlines, although I have been Prem Exec with UA in the past. I have miles in UA, Virgin and AA, in that order. United is my 'preferred' airline because I have more miles with them and they fly to IAD and most other hubs that I need to use.
However, my wife and I have recently started 'FF'ing again and really want to maximise our opportunity.
We are in the UK and flew to LA on business in April, with ANZ as it's a direct flight from LHR and are shortly going to be visiting Hong Kong... probably 3 times total this year. That on its own is going to leave us just short of Prem Exec this year unless I can either justify doing a miles run, or I can persuade UA to upgrade me anyway.
I spoke to the Mileage Plus agent this morning and he just told me flat that there were no challenges on the books... but that may well have been because ANZ have been lousy at passing on my miles for the LA flight... the first flight we've made in the Star Alliance since May last year. At least he took the details and entered them for a missing miles claim.
Any suggestions on a fast track would be much appreciated... including the proper place to post this!

If you're going to be doing this on US, you'll want all the upgrades you can get... I would say switch in this case... with a good number of UA flights out of SEA though, have you looked into flying somewhere nearby to PHL?

I'm currently Delta Gold and United 1P (will be 1K once the 2EQM promotion is processed). I haven't flown Delta very much so far this year, and find myself flying Alaska more often for my domestic flights (I mainly fly *A for int'l). I'm thinking about trying to get a status match with Alaska (probably based on my Delta status, although theoretically using my United status), and after reading this thread I have a few questions about status matching:

1. If I were to match with AS soon (some time this month), would it be valid for the entirety of 2010 (i.e. for the next 18 months) or just through 2009 (i.e. next ~7 months?
2. If the status match were only valid for the rest of 2009, would i need to fly the entire 40/50K miles in 7 months to requalify as MVP Gold next year? (Not sure if I'll be able to do that... if that is the case I may just wait to status match next year)
3. Does it make a difference whether I try to match using UA vs DL status? Should I use both? (If it's relevant to this decision: I plan to retain my UA status, whereas I'll probably be letting my DL status drop at the end of the year. If I get AS status I will also plan on retaining it in future years.)
4. Is it wise/unwise to call an AS CSR to get more information about potential status match (such as when it would expire)? Is this akin to showing them my hand?

I live in SEA and fully intend to retain AS status in future years-- this isn't a one-time stealth status match attempt. I just want to make sure that if I match I won't lose my status next year. I fly enough in 12 months to easily keep MVP Gold-- just not sure if I could retain it based solely on the 2nd half of the year.