It is my understanding that NO gets a status match from BA or QF!

[/B][/QUOTE]

Agree - BA don't match AFAIK. If you live in Oz I think it is Asia Miles anyway.

I sent in my fax a couple of weeks ago and united.com just showed me as PremEx as of last night (time to update the ol FT handle). It took so long I thought maybe they had rejected it. Then I realized that I've heard Oct 15th and after will go through next year - so maybe they were just holding on to it.

I'd confirm that I ended up status through Feb '05, but I'm not aware of any way to look up an expiration date online - so I'll just have to wait for the physical manifestations to arrive in the mail.

Unless you get a corporate account manager on your side and plan to spend around $100k (especially as a UK based member) forget about getting BA to comp you, which is the same as I said on page 1 if you had taken the time to read the thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I sent a comp request to UA (from DL Gold) 2 weeks ago and still no word. My guess is that they are backed up with requests.

See my note above. It took more than a couple weeks to process my comp but it finally just cleared.

I wish that was true. I was comped from Hilton Gold to only Hyatt Platinum last year and they didn't even want to offer me a challenge for Diamond. Wonder what I did wrong...

Did it come thru as 2005?

My letter with the card was dated Oct 7th and the card said to end of Feb 2004

Cheers

Alan

However others further down the page mentioned that BA will comp status in certain conditions. In the past year about 50% of my flights are in paid J - including transcons. If I was a earned *G for $2K or less, I would expect nothing, but that is not my travel pattern.

And yes I did read your post, along with the others.

Mapleleaf, you have very clearly answered your own question. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Even if you flew a 100% paid J your chances would be extremely slim, unless your corporate account manager was able to intervene on your behalf, 50% paid J will get you absolutely nothing on BA.Zero,zilch ,nada.

Try AA if you are interested in OW.

I'd disagree slightly.

Ask BA for the comp. See what they say. Report back to us. One more data point can help us all! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

BA is not as tough as many of the above state in all countries. I do not know how tough they are in Canada, however in the US they are NOT as strict as the UK.

Was comped today from HH Gold to Hyatt Platinum -- valid through 2/2005

Anyone know of HH coming to Diamond?

We all know that airlines set their own policies and when you call/fax that's what you get, the standard policy.

To get more (and what you want) I see you need to do two things:

1. Prove a business case to the airline that THEY will benefit by giving you whatever status you want. Whether it be in miles travelled, a copy of your last years cc summary showing airline charges, routes your flying on a competitor, or whatever. Point being figure out what they want and then show them that you have the ability to give it to them. Make a compelling story!

2. Get to the right person who has the authority to overide policy, and make an exception based on a good business decision.

I'm sure they get a bunch of people trying to match status so they make their rules accordingly. And a bunch of them never come through.

I was comped AA EXP to UA 1K a few years ago. I was told no way, Prem Ex was it. I got hold of someone in the Marketing Dept, faxed by prior years AA statement showing almost 200K miles, explained why I want to fly UA (AC bought out CP and my family lives in Canada which is where I use my miles, and UA was partners with AC). I very easily could have stayed with AA, but they wanted my business. At the end he couldn't thank me enough for switching to UA and giving me 1K accomplished it.

That was a few years ago when revenue wasn't the deciding factor, today if you can prove you spend lots of money, have a great story, and get to that right person I'd be surprised if they won't make the right business decision.

bump because this thread offers a lot of great information