Got airline status? Unique opportunities await…

Are you very loyal to a particularly airline or alliance? Have Status with airlines like British Airways, Delta or others? Fancy trying out another airline but don’t want to miss out on your status perks? Read on…

Status Matches are you friend

Status Matches are exactly what they sound like. You have status with airline A but airline B wants to attract your business, they then offer to match your status for a period of time to incentivise you to travel with them - and stay after the period ends. It’s a clever scheme for the airlines, or at least the ones that are winning, but you too can win from them.

But how?

Although airlines do status matches with the intention of winning business from you, as a traveller you still have freedom to fly with any airline - you’re not generally bound to fly with them. Let me explain.

I have British Airways Executive Club Silver status which I earned through a number of flights to Asia in 2019. British Airways are part of the oneworld alliance, meaning whenever I fly on one of the member airlines I get access to their Business Class Lounges, free seat selection and and extra 32kg of luggage - a pretty sweet deal. I like oneworld too but I want to give other airlines a go too - plus it allows for extra blog content. Cue TAP Air Portugal.

TAP are a member of Star Alliance, which features airlines like United, Air Canada, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines. Since April 2020, they’ve been offering status matches to many airlines like BA from other alliances - and, at the time, I received my status for a period of 2 years. By matching from BA Silver to TAP Gold/Star Alliance Gold, not only did I get benefits like extra luggage and priority queues but access to great lounges like Singapore Airlines at Heathrow even when flying Economy. This is the best of both worlds - I get to try an airline I wouldn’t have done, but I still have the flexibility of maintaining my status with my most convenient airline British Airways.

The pandemic has made this easier

Thanks to status extensions from airlines and reductions in the threshold for maintaining status, airlines have made it a lot easier to switch to another airline or alliance without the risk of losing all status. I know that just for taking one flight on another airline isn’t going to make much difference because I am not going to lost my status for another 18 months - which is plenty of time to re-qualify if I choose to do so. For example, I have also just applied for the Delta Status Challenge. Although this is only for 3 months, I am due to fly with their partner KLM in December and I wanted to try the KLM lounge at Schiphol for this blog - this allows me to do that and save £80 on entrance fee (for 2 people).

What are the main opportunities?

First is TAP Air Portugal for Star Alliance status match - which I only recommend if your status tracks across to Star Alliance Gold, which gives you lounge access. Below are the steps you need to take, but note you have to buy a minimum of 4000 TAP miles in order to be eligible - this was around EUR 90 when I purchased mine. Status lasts for 12 months at the time of writing.

A list of airlines accepted for status match can be found here. They match across to programmes including:

• American

• British Airways

• Finnair

• Air France-KLM

• Qatar

Second, is the status match opportunity from Italy’s new state carrier, ITA Airlines. ITA have effectively taken over from where Alitalia left off, but with a lot less debt. They are currently allowing status match until 30th November 2021, with the status being valid from 31st December 2021. This wasn’t interesting until last week when ITA announced it was joining SkyTeam - the alliance of KLM, Delta and Korean. This means that your status match with ITA could be valid for one year with these airlines allowing you access to their lounges and more - with there being no charge like the one from TAP. It’s a win-win situation. This is valid for the following status holders at these airlines:

• Alitalia – MilleMiglia

• Air France/KLM - Flying Blu

• American Airlines - AAdvantage

• British Airways - Executive Club

• Delta Airlines – SkyMiles

• Emirates – Skywards

• Iberia – Iberia Plus

• Lufthansa - Miles and More

• Singapore Airlines - KrisFlyer

• Turkish Airlines – Miles & Smile

• United Airlines - MileagePlus

To be eligible, you need to sign up for ITA’s Volare programme here and then do the following.

Send an email to statusmatch@itaspa.com with the following details: 

• Email subject: "program of origin" - "status of origin"  e.g. “British Airways” - “Silver”

• Text of email: First name, surname; "program of origin" - "status of origin" 

• Please attach a legible copy of your current valid Frequent Flyer program card (digital or physical) and a copy of your identity card1 (pdf, jpg format)  

ITA replied and confirmed my status within 24 hours - very easy!

These aren’t the only ones. Others such as Delta Air Lines have been running for years but aren’t as lucrative as the above, but they can be very useful. Keep an eye out for other airlines doing the same by following blogs such as One Mile at a Time and HeadForPoints which will generally always cover stories like this. You most definitely will benefit from taking a little time to investigate.