Why only Status Match in UK?
 

Hi Ladies and Gents,

I may be wrong but from what I have read, the *A status match promotions have only been for UK residents. Am I the only one who thinks that is very odd? I would even go so far as to say that I think that is very unfortunate and unfair.

Because:

1) while quite a few people earn their *A miles & points the usual way, a truckload of UK residents can be status matched if they are elite with another program and thus jump the queue, if you like. *A Gold status is already getting more and more non-exclusive by the minute and this would only make matters worse.

2) if you are to status match to *A, wouldn't the only fair thing be to offer that to everyone and not just UK residents?


As a side note I'd like to ask the experts out there 2 questions:

- is there a particular reason why it is mainly Star Aliiance UK that does this? Are they so desperate to attract customers in the UK that they turn to desperate measures?

- can the *A airline staff (ground, check-in, in-flight) see whether you are actually frequently flying *A flights and that you are not just one of the status matched customers?


Any feedback is appreciated.

Cheers,
JabbaJabba

Hi

This was discussed at length when 2004 UK *A promo appeared. The point was to get customers onto *A from BA/OW. As the benefits of status mostly come from flying *A (there are some significant exceptions) the airlines dont lose much and hopefully gained some valuable customers.

No I dont think it would be wise to status match anyone. The promo was targetted to a particular market where *A isnt strong.

If you want more info, perhaps you could do a search?

Thanks for the comments. As for doing a search I have actually done that. Several searches in fact. However, if you look at the size of some of the threads which pop up you may understand why I haven't read everything.

The short answer is no.