I am AA Plat and will be traveling to Poland/Italy several times this year. Is it possible to get matched with LOT Polish or Alitalia? Any other European airlines that match?

TIA

Your chances to get matched with LO are not too good. They use Miles&More (same program as LH, LX, OS�) and as you probably know M&M doesn't do such things in general. BTW LO is not such a great airline and I'd avoid it if I could. If you want to get *A status you could match your stAAtus with BD. your chances are pretty good to get matched to BD DM Gold witch is *G as well.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
totti

I thought that BD would not comp you very easily.Mostly BA silvers and golds...any news on this?

BD is recently reported to have comped AA Gold to BD Gold

So should be no problem with AA plat.Did the person have to show any bookings on BD?Did he/she live in one of the countries where you can enroll to BD?

thanks

This may have been true in 2003, at first blush it appears to not be the case any more. I just received this by email:

To: Mr.
Preferred Guest Number: *******

Dear Mr. ,

Thank you for your recent email concerning your Starwood Preferred Guest account. I welcome this opportunity to assist you.

I must apologize, however we do not status match with Airline memberships. We do status match with our direct competitors (Marriott Rewards Platinum status, Hilton HHonors Worldwide Diamond status, Hyatt Gold Passport Diamond status). If you have any of these please send a copy of your membership card and most recent membership statement to the fax number or address below. Once we have received this information, we will process your Starwood Preferred Guest membership accordingly.

Fax: 512-997-9046

Address: Starwood Preferred Guest Program
P.O. Box 143986
Austin, TX 78714-3986

We appreciate your patronage of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. If you have any further customer service questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].

Best Regards,


Specialist, E-Communications Department
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide

Just have a look at the BD Forum. There are a lot of threads about matching and it looks like it is not that difficult.

You can even find some posts indicating that you can now enroll in every country. You can choose "rest of the world" and than select the country you want�

cheers
totti

Anyone know whether AA is back to matches? I know they obviously have their challanges, but the agent I talked to a few months ago said they match a few times a year. Any clue whether 'tis the season?

I've now been matched to 1P. ^

Last I heard, they were outright matching status if you were based out of Chicago (even up to EXP for 1K)... this was a couple months ago, and I'm not sure if it's still going on. There's a thread buried in the AA forum somewhere... I'll see if I can find it.

and I dont really get it:

Well I don't have a Mileage plus number which is kinda the point isn't it? or I wouldnt be asking for a comp status. Or, was I supposed to open an account first??

Any wording suggestions would be happily received!!

Although I have no direct experience, it does seem from the message they sent you that they want you to open a MP account first and fax them the number.

Adding my experience here as another data point for reference. Faxed my UA 1K card, statement, and RCC card to the DL fax number listed above with a polite letter. Got absolutely no response for three weeks, but my account just showed up as DL Gold. No challenge - straight comp.

Yes, open MP account first.

I sent a nearly identical email to Marriott, Hyatt, SPG and Hilton asking them if I could get a higher status given my status as Platinum at AA. With Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott I previously held higher statuses (5+ years ago) and expressed to them that I was getting back in the travel game and would stay with them a lot if they bumped my status. Marriott, Hyatt and SPG each sent a quick reply stating that they don't match airlines. Hilton hasn't responded yet.