Hi All,
I am a lowly Premier UA flyer and now my travel is changing drastically. Most of my travel was domestic and now I will be flying 3-4 times a year to Colombia (Medellin mostly). Neither UA or its partners fly there so I need to request a status match from either Continental or Delta or maybe American (but I doubt it) as they have the best flights from PDX. Since Delta has in its group Continental, Copa and Avianca I'm inclined to go with them (and I have some miles with Delta already) but I am booked for my first 10 flight trip in May with Continental/Copa and its pre-paid (I also have 4 of those flights inside Colombia with Avianca but they do not accrue status miles with Delta anyway only regular miles).
Would it make more sense to get a status match with Continental which I'm already booked on in May (and I see gives a 50% bonus on their flights with there lowest elite status) or Delta (which only gives 25% bonus but I'm not actually flying them this time but have miles already)? I see also that Continental's lowest elites do not get to have there travel companion's upgraded but Delta's lowest elites do.......
Oh, and I have no miles on my OnePass membership at all......I always requested Delta miles at the time I used Continental but I do fly Continental domestically as much as Delta so I can change that to getting OnePass miles of course.
And, what are the chances of being upgraded from PDX to Houston, Houston to Panama City???
Any advice would be a big help!
Thanks,
Rob

My impression was that CO had a stronger Central/South-American presence, so if you wanted to go other places that far south, would CO be your better choice?

Steve B.

You could of course ask for a status match on NW. Then you have
DL and CO in the system, watch out for CO reduced mileage accrual.
NW status gives you status with CO as well, including domestic FC
upgrades. I understand it's easier to get NW status match than with
CO.

Is there really no way to get American to match status? I have no interest in doing a challenge and won't travel with them unless I'm given status. Anyone found a way around this?

Don't think there is a way around it unless your corp travel agent can get you comp status match. Happens very rarely but it does. They need to be MAJOR acct for AA.

Got it today from NW. let's see if it works:

Thank you for contacting Northwest Airlines regarding a possible upgrade
of your WorldPerks account to an Elite status.

While you did not accumulate the necessary mileage credit through the
Northwest WorldPerks program, we would like to review your flight
activity for a possible exception. Please forward actual copies of your
most recent Delta and United Airlines mileage statements for the past
two months. We will also accept a copy of your latest six months online
Delta and United Airlines activity, provided your year-to-date Elite
qualifying miles are included.

Please send this information to:

WorldPerks Customer Service Center
Attn: Emily Hayes
601 Oak St
Chisholm MN 55719-1995

Or via fax at 218-254-7567

Please be advised that we are unable to accept the following forms of
documentation--travel agency reports, letters of Elite status,
membership cards indicating Elite status with another airline, or travel
itineraries.

Please also note, for security measures, we are not able to access or
open attachments/scanned material.

We appreciate your interest in the WorldPerks program and would consider
it a privilege to serve your future air travel needs.

If you have any additional questions, concerns, or need further
assistance, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Lee Braaten
WorldPerks Customer Service Center

If you have a choice of carriers within Colombia you can earn EQM on flights with Aerorepublica on your Onepass account, if you choose to switch to CO. That way you can fly CO or Copa (CM) to and from Colombia and Aerorepublica within.

At what time does it seem safe to assume a DL status match won't happen this weekend?
According to what I read here DL status changes early Saturday morning, I assume this means US time. I have asked them for a match about 10 days ago and want to book flights, but my decision sort of depends on whether I would be statusless when flying them (or a Skyteam member..) or have status.

I haven't heard back from them at all so far.

I requested mine on a friday and it showed up the next friday night (1 week later)... if you don't see something today, you may wanna write a letter and Fed Ex it as that option seems reliable.

Yeah, I'll write them a letter. I am just not sure whether I should send it to the European or US customer service center?
I'll probably go for the US one, as the letter should be on the way just a bit longer and I suppose they would have more authority on these things.

Hi,
I'm planing a Status Match from LH FTL to bmi *S. Does anyone know how to do that?

Is there a fax no. available?

Markus

Are there any SkyTeam airlines other than CO who might potentially match up to top-tier, Elite Plus level. I'm coming from Air Canada Super-Elite and also have BA Silver.

Status matches to bmi are covered extensively in this thread in the bmi forum. It also gives the fax number several times.

However, as noted as early as the third post in that thread, bmi do not generally match within *A. Most airlines don't match partners, since a status match is an attempt to get a customer away from a competitor and this is considered bad manners within an alliance. You may be able to justify an exception if, say, you are moving from Germany to the UK, but it will be an exception. If you explain in your initial request why your situation justifies such an exception, your chances will improve. Otherwise, you run the risk of being turned down before you have a chance to explain. It will be harder to persuade them to reverse themselves, once they're on record as having said "no," than to justify a "yes" from the start.

Hi there,

apparently my previously sent faxes weren't lost entirely, when logging in today (Thursday) I was greeted as Silver Medallion. Too bad my shot for GM by mentioning previous year's 60,000 EQM on LH didn't work out.
I suppose my letter I sent two days ago was superfluous now, but oh well..

Hi all

In the past i know that BMI status matched to other airlines such as KLM (af) ..after a phone call to the DC line today the agent who i spoke to said that they only match to BA now?

Has anyone else recently had any luck status matching to them ?

Thanks


P.