I don't recall whether it was this thread or another one, but I did see it reported a year ago that CO matched a UA electronic statement printout w/o card.

The card requirement will do a little more to prevent illegitimate status matching, but it's not much harder than "doctoring" the electronic statements used for status matching too.

I would not be surprised if most airlines/hotels that do status matching don't find it worth the resources to very thoroughly double check (and potentially alienate) a more-likely-to-be-good prospective customer.

IF someone is wishing to push the envelope (and then some) for "status" when they could not otherwise earn frequent traveller status or retain it is an indication that the cost of the status match is likely to be slim -- especially compared to legitimate status members who truly milk a program -- like using BA Gold for anytime lounge access and UA award tickets to get airside, etc.

I just thought I will share my experience. I am Alaska MVP Gold with over 90K EQMs flown this year. I tried to get a status match on Delta (Sent request around 11/11), and they sent me this challenge:
6000 miles between Dec 1,2005 and Feb 28, 2006 will get me Silver
12,000 miles between the same dates will get me Gold.

No direct bump to even silver!

I am thinking if I should even switch now....am trying to figure out how many bonus miles I will lose by switching vs. miles I cant get on Alaska for flying Singapore Air, Air France, etc.

Edit: I sent a printout of my Alaska Air mileage activity, a copy of my Gold card, and of course, a request letter.

Delta has clearly shifted toward more often offering challenges. I'm hoping they are considering adopting even more aspects -- formal and informal -- of the AA program.

I took the advice of this thread and AS matched my UA Premier status. Within two weeks of getting MVP on AS, I booked two flights, one from MFR - PDX and the other from MFR - MCO. Both times I was able to reserve the Exit row seat which is not small issue when you're 6' 8" and flying for 7 hours. I'm pretty confident at this point that I'll be able to achieve AS MVP on flight segments alone.

GREAT THREAD!!!

I'm just wondering two things. I'm an NW Gold, will I get UA 1P (Premiere Exec) or just 2P?

Also if I get my status comped now (next week) it will carry over for all of 06?

Thanks!

NW Gold generally gets UA Premier Executive.

And getting a UA comp (based on NW Gold status) this month generally gives status through the end of February 2007. At least that's what a late October/beginning November status match yielded.

Cool! Thanks a lot.. mileage earning opportunities are greater with UA.. think i'm going to make the switch...

Hello everyone,

First, thanks to all of you for this really informative thread.

I was AAdvantage Gold (through my employer), and just switched to CO. I mailed my documents 6 days ago, and as of yesterday I'm showing up as Silver at continental.com. I wanted to let everyone know that they changed the status match PO box, and I figured out the fax number.

After emailing the service center, here is what they request:

-Full Name
-OnePass Account Number
-Current Address
-Current Phone Number
-A copy of the most recent statement from the other airline showing status and current mileage
-A copy of your current elite card from the other airline

You can send it to:

OA Match Request
P.O. Box 4757
Houston, TX 77210-4757

or, fax to 832-235-2713.

If I request status match now, when will the CO status expire?

Feb '07

It took 3 days for UA to give me Premier Executive after matching my AA EXP stus. I used a web account printout and a copy of my card using the fax number.

TheKnife

Mailed my documents (copy of EXP card and latest statement via web printout showing 100K+ miles so far this year) on Dec. 2. As of today my CO status is now Platinum. It works.

CO (and at least previously US) seems to be the only major "legacy" US airline that status matches up to and including into their top-tier. (AA, DL, UA and NW are -- to say the least -- certainly far more reserved in considering such top-tier to top-tier status matches.)

I'm trying to get United to status match my NW worldperks. I'm platinum on NW with 100K+ EQMs and since it seems United is going to ask for my mileage statement + card copy they're going to see that. Can anyone tell me what status I'm likely to get?