kvokka

Hello guys.

Hope you are going great.

I’ve resided in Portugal, there is no way to obtain a proper bank card and after the COVID I have a «brand new» account. Plus, I usually travel with my wife, which means that on the one hand I need only 1 star alliance gold status, and on another that flying in any direction will double the price.

The trick is, that instead of flying for status, there is an option to live in a hotel for a status. For 20 nights in shangri-la hotels, it’s possible to get a Jade status, which makes an instant status match to KrisFlyer silver (and this is a star alliance silver alias). Then, after asking for a fast track from Singapore airlines just for 3 flings I’ll be able to get gold status (there is also an option to stay 50 nights and get hotels Gold status, which will be converted to the KrisFlyer Gold with a challenge of 1 flight only, but I’m not sure that it with it). yeey.

And now there is a tricky question, which is bothering me. Is it the only option on the market with a status match on the hotel loyalty program? A spent ~15 hours in different kinds of googling trying to fetch something besides this offer but failed.

Thanks a lot in advance!

gojko88

Marriott Titanium status will get you UA Silver, but it's nowhere near as convenient as what you described above.

kvokka

Thank you @gojko88 for the hint! This one unfortunately is not usable for me, cos I have no way to use US airlines, but it proves, that it's possible to do this sort of match and that other options might be possible.

asovse1

depending on which countries you've ever resided in that you're able to establish a relationship with AMEX, many of their Platinum products internationally offer Shangri-La Jade status as a perk of getting the card

https://www.americanexpress.com/my/b...embership.html

pretty sure it works for AMEX Canada, USA, HK, MY, SG, AUS...you should check if it'll work for Portugal or whatever countries you can sign up with AMEX based on your history

dvs7310

Depending on if you find anything better or not, there have been a couple times in the past 2 years that TP offered Gold status for cash, alongside a pretty good amount of miles. Don't know if they'll ever do it again or not, or just a way to raise cash during the pandemic.

I'm not aware of any other hotel status that gives you much benefit on airlines outside the one you mentioned. Marriott only gets you to UA Silver (Star Alliance), I forget Hyatt's relationship with AA, but think it only gets you a fast track to AA Gold (OW Ruby), but not automatic status. Airline status, outside of Japan, usually requires actually flying a set number of miles / dollars per year. (Japan has credit cards to give status either automatically or after obtaining organically once).

What's your flying pattern actually like? There are some fairly low threshold *A Gold programs out there that are also easy to maintain after obtaining once. Your SQ method of getting silver via hotel then fast tracking to Gold will only work once. They won't give you a fast track every year and SQ isn't the easiest status to maintain unless you fly business class a lot.