Once you have status in one airline you can often use that to “match” your status to another airline. If you tend to fly a variety of airlines, then it is worth having status across the three main alliances. I will look into three of the current offers in this article.
Both the Skyteam and Royal Jordanian ones are due to end on Sunday, so don’t hang around if you are interested.
In this post:
Air France/KLM Skyteam status match
With Virgin Atlantic now being part of Skyteam, this is a way to get status benefits with Virgin Atlantic as well as all the other 17 airlines in Skyteam, such as Delta and ITA.
Which airlines can you match from?
Aer Lingus, Air Canada, American Airlines, British Airways, Emirates, Iberia, Lufthansa / SWISS / Austrian, Malaysia Airlines, Qatar Airways, SAS, TAP, Turkish Airlines and United Airlines.
You need to have UK ID as well.
What levels can you match to?
Most readers will have BA status, so here is how the status levels map across:
- BA Bronze to Flying Blue Silver (SkyTeam Elite)
- BA Silver to Flying Blue Gold (SkyTeam Elite Plus)
- BA Gold will get you Flying Blue Platinum (SkyTeam Elite Plus)
For other airlines, you can find a table of matches here.
Flying Blue Silver
- Earn 6 Miles for each Euro spent
- Priority access for check-in and baggage drop-off
- Free selection of standard seats
- Free seat options 24 hours before departure
- One free extra checked baggage item on Sky Team flights
Flying Blue Gold
- Earn 7 Miles for each Euro spent
- Free access to SkyTeam lounges worldwide with a guest (conditions apply)
- SkyPriority: priority access throughout the airport
- Free seat options 72 hours before departure
- Free selection of standard seats
- One free extra checked baggage item on SkyTeam flights
Flying Blue Platinum
- Earn 8 Miles for each Euro spent
- Enjoy access to our lounges across the globe, with a guest of your choice*
- SkyPriority: priority access at the airport
- Choose your standard seat when you buy your ticket, free of charge
- Benefit from preferred Seat Options, free of charge
- Bring an additional baggage item on all SkyTeam flights
- Call the exclusive Platinum Service Line, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Is it worth it?
If you hold BA Gold status and collect Flying Blue Miles or have an American Express card with Membership Rewards (you can convert them into Flying Blue miles), then there is one big advantage of the match. La Premiere is Air France’s First class product and you can only redeem miles for it if you hold Air France Platinum status. La Premiere is widely acknowledged to be a great product, particularly in terms of the “soft” product i.e. the food and service.
However, there is also something to be aware of if you are thinking of getting the match to access Virgin Atlantic’s Clubhouse at Heathrow. Unfortunately, you will not get access to the Clubhouse at Heathrow if you are flying in Economy or Premium Economy. You will have access to another T3 lounge (I’d guess the Aspire one). Even with Platinum status, you can’t get access with Economy, only with Premium Economy or above with Virgin Atlantic. This only applies at Heathrow, so you would get access to the other Clubhouses around the world. You can use the Upper Class Wing check-in and security though with Platinum status.
If approved, the Status Match upgrade is valid for 12 months.
How to apply
If you are not already a member of Flying Blue, you must first join the loyalty scheme. Then head over to the special status match page here.
Unfortunately, there are fees to match, which may be the start of a new trend. Previously, you have occasionally had to buy points with the airline to get the match but I can see more airlines going this way.
Here are the relevant fees:
There are application fees, unfortunately:
- Silver: €79
- Gold: €199
- Platinum: €399
If you have a level of status that entitles you to a match to Platinum, you can actually opt to have a match to Gold instead to save €200, as Gold still entitles you to lounge access. To do this, select your status as the lower one that matches Flying Club Gold, such as BA Silver, for example.
The offer is due to finish soon so if you are interested I would not hang about.
You can find more details on the status match page here.
Oneworld – Royal Jordanian – get free BA lounge access
One question I get asked a lot is if BA do status matches. The bad news is that they virtually never do status matches, so your best bet is to try one that offers a match to oneworld status so you can have benefits on BA. Royal Jordanian offers two tiers for the match. If you match into Gold SPARROW you will get lounge access with BA along with other Oneworld benefits.
Eligible countries
Only Government issued identity document holders for the following countries are eligible for the offer:
Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey and UAE.
Although the T&C says England, when you apply it says UK so I would expect anywhere in the UK would be acceptable.
What can you match to?
“Silver JAY” – oneworld RUBY®
- Nominate a personal travel coordinator to assist you in managing your membership account and activities.
- Access to Business Class priority check-in when flying RJ or oneworld.
- Access to RJ Crown Lounge in Queen Alia International Airport when flying RJ in exchange of 1500 miles.
- Priority placement on reservation waitlist on RJ flights.
- Extra Baggage Allowance on RJ flights “Please refer to the Extra Baggage Allowance policy”.
- Access to preferred seating (where offered).
- Priority on waitlists and when on standby (where offered).
- BA free seat selection seven days before departure for everyone in your party. Exit row seats can be selected for free from 24 hours before departure.
Gold SPARROW – oneworld tier status: SAPPHIRE®
- One Complimentary Upgrade to Crown Class in 12 months, on RJ operated and marketed flights only.(1)
- Complimentary access to all Royal Jordanian and 650 oneworld alliance lounges worldwide with one guest when flying RJ or oneworld.
- The chance to Gift an Award Ticket to a non-member.
- Nominate a personal travel coordinator to assist you in managing your membership account and activities.
- Access to Business Class priority check-in when flying RJ or oneworld.
- Priority Boarding with RJ and oneworld.
- Priority Baggage Handling.
- Extra Baggage Allowance with RJ and oneworld.
- Fast Track at select airports.
- Priority placement on reservation waitlist on RJ flights.
- Free seat selection on British Airways
How to apply
Like the Skyteam offer, there is a fee to pay. Given that BA Gold is usually valued at around £2000-2500 this seems like a decent deal to me for lounge access, free seat selection and extra baggage alone. Just selecting a single seat in Club on long haul can be as much as the fee for Gold Sparrow.
The application fees are
- $149 for Gold Sparrow tier
- $49 for the Silver Jay tier.
First, you will need to have a Royal Jordian Royal Club account, but you can do that from the signup page. You can then apply for the status match on this special page.
Star Alliance – Turkish Airlines
Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles is offering status matches again into Star Alliance, but they do not have a formal offer currently. However, they are accepting many status match requests. It will only give you 4 months status, so use the request wisely when you have a trip coming up you can use it on. You can also extend it to a full year with one Turkish Airlines flight in the initial four month period.
Applying is not particularly straightforward.
- First, you need to create a Turkish account if you don’t already have one or sign in.
- Then, fill out the feedback form and click “Membership Processes” under Miles and Smiles
- Fill in the comments section saying you want to apply for a status match
- Supply the required proof of identity and status:
- A photo of your physical or digital airline status membership card, which is valid for at least 4 months
- A screenshot showing recent account activity on the account
- The photo page of your passport.
The Turkish scheme has four different elite levels: Classic, Classic Plus, Elite, and Elite Plus. Elite is the sweet spot and should be attainable through the status match with top tier status on major airlines. Elite has Star Alliance Gold perks, such as lounge access.
2 comments
The great thing about the flying blue match, is that they don’t just match you but award the full amounts of XP points required, I was sitting 42XP short of gold and after matching to gold, actually received platinum with a small number of XP points short of platinum for next year.
That’s really good to know.
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