StatusMatcher – what tier matches can you get from your existing airline and hotel status cards?

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statusmatcher.com is a site which I think HfP readers should know about, as it does offer a useful service to regular travellers. I have no idea who runs it or where it is based, but it has been around since 2007 and has a lot of contributors.

A ‘status match’ is when you approach an airline or hotel company with proof of your high status with a competing airline or hotel group. You then ask to be immediately upgraded to the equivalent level with that company. This is not unreasonable, since it encourages customers to switch brands. People would otherwise be unwilling to give up their status benefits with the other group by starting from scratch with the new company.

Some groups love giving status matches, others don’t. British Airways will almost never status match, unless your company signs a major deal with them or you have a relationship with an overseas office. Virgin Atlantic, on the other hand, ran a status match for British Airways customers earlier this year.

Frequent flyer cards

I have written about specific matches on Head for Points in the past. The main one at present is the one offered by Hilton Honors. They will give you Gold status status for 90 days and give you the chance to retain that status for a full period – or be upgraded to Diamond – by doing a handful of stays during that period. Details of the Hilton status match are in this HfP article.

Many other airlines and hotel groups offer UNOFFICIAL status matches. You won’t find the details on their website, but they will do it if you ask. Marriott has run a Platinum Elite challenge in the past for example – it is how I first got my Bonvoy (well, Marriott Rewards as was) top tier status – although I am not sure if it is running at present.

The point of the StatusMatcher website is to provide a central point where people can report successful or failed status matches. It gives other readers a feel for who is worth approaching.

As statusmatcher.com has become more established, the data has become more reliable and more up to date. You tend to need a decent level of feedback on any particular programme before you can ascertain a trend.

There is never a guarantee that a particular airline or hotel chain will match you even if it matched someone else. On the other hand, if you have a number of flights booked with an airline then you might be successful where someone else failed. Despite this, StatusMatcher does give you useful guidance and is worth adding to your arsenal of frequent flyer tools.

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Polly says:

7 Jun7 June 06:04

Yep, it was a very useful tool, when CX gold ended as a perk on the Platinum card. Remember using SM to match to air Berlin for a year, then back to CX for a further year before getting silver on BA via QR. The feedback let you know your chances of which airline at that time was open to matches. Kept our OW sapphire going for years with SM.
- MilesOnPoint says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 07:11
  
  Nice. I’ve had a pretty good run with status matches:
  
  BA Silver (QR J)
  Matched to Alitalia Freccia Alata Gold
  Matched to LATAM Platinum (OW Sapphire, at the time)
  Matched to Avianca Brasil Gold (* Gold)
  Matched to Air Berlin Gold (OW Sapphire)
  
  When Air Berlin went bust, Russian Airline S7 offered a match to AB Topbonus members, so I managed to do that:
  Matched to S7 Gold (OW Sapphire)
  
  Avianca Brasil Gold was handy for Heathrow Express 1st class access on STD tickets. Got a nice op-up on OS from VIE-LHR too (Schnitzel @ 30,000 feet FTW)
  - Polly says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 07:18
    
    Good use there.
    Yes, actually forgot about our Alitalia Freccia Alata Gold one too. It was a right musical chair fest of silver status. A great site.
Nick G says:

7 Jun7 June 07:17

I was looking at status matcher at the weekend. I found it a bit hit and miss to be honest. I can see the Hilton challenge but can’t see what Hilton gold can be matched with?
roberto says:

7 Jun7 June 07:25

@rob, re Status Matcher
they emailed me and are running a new beta upgrade to the site and looking for people to sign up as guinea pigs before June 11th see https://www.statusmatch.com/beta/T5I35Z3 to sign up. Was limited to a 1000 people but link still open as at 7:30am today.
- roberto says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 07:28
  
  Nb It’s not status matcher but status match dot com
  - Roberto says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 07:54
    
    Further to my comment above ( I wish there was an edit facility ).
    
    This is NOT statusmatcher but a new outfit allegedly just starting and in the same theme. I was emailed and signed up but know no more about them than that. Cavet emporum and all that of course.
    - Doreen says:
      
      7 Jun7 June 08:48
      
      https://www.statusmatch.com/beta/?z=V7U42@4 Is another link to this – seemingly if 5 people use my or Roberto’s link we are quaranteed to be on the beta test. … if you google statusmatch.com , it seems to be aimed – at loyalty companies – I wonder if they are just building up a list to sell ?
      - Rob says:
        
        7 Jun7 June 09:39
        
        I know Mark who owns this. Yes, basically, they are going to sell your details.
      - Mark says:
        
        7 Jun7 June 10:16
        
        No selling of personal data or customer details in any way at all.
        
        This link may guide you on the direction we’re shooting for, which is about holding loyalty programs accountable for their inability to seamlessly onboard new, high-value customers: -www.statusmatch.com/about
      - Doreen says:
        
        7 Jun7 June 10:43
        
        As I guessed, Rob. To be honest, I don’t have a problem if it gives me another shot at Star Alliance Gold: like many others, my TAP Gold will expire soon without ever being used 🙁
JandeW says:

7 Jun7 June 07:57

I did the TAPMiles&Go status match in July last year (after HfP had flagged it up) matching my BAEC Silver to Star Alliance Gold. I paid my €99 and assumed it had worked However, TAP seem never to have acknowledged the status match and, when logging into my TAP account, it shows me as just a bottom tier member. I emailed TAP 11 days ago – still waiting for clarification.
- Rob says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 09:42
  
  Odd. Mine updated within 24 hours of paying the €99. Whether I get to use it before it expires in September is a different question ….
  - AJA says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 10:35
    
    I had the same result as you Rob, status updated within 24 hours of paying. I definitely won’t get a chance to use it before my status expires and I see reports on FT that they won’t extend status. I was hoping to use it for a trip to Brazil but that isn’t happening. Do you know whether they have a soft drop on expiry like BA or do you go directly from Gold to base level? They keep offering an upgrade of Club membership in exchange for Silver status but if I just drop to Silver I don’t see the point. Also do you know what the expiry policy of TAP miles is? I find the TAP website terribly short on info.
    - Rob says:
      
      7 Jun7 June 10:40
      
      No idea about soft landings – they may change their mind, because this isn’t exactly going to encourage you to fly TAP in the future. Not sure about expiry policy either – I should probably find out given I’ll have 14,000 miles soon!
      - MilesOnPoint says:
        
        7 Jun7 June 13:52
        
        My TAP match expired at the end of April 2021 (didn’t get to use it unfortunately due to cancelled trip) I did get a soft landing to TAP Silver but YMMV
        
        Star Alliance benefits are pretty thin but one or two benefits when flying TAP metal
      - David S says:
        
        7 Jun7 June 20:26
        
        TAP are a bit like Lufthansa – you lose miles within a set period of earning them if you don’t use them (2 years ?) No matter what new activity you still lose the older miles. And it’s hard to earn them and their Customer Service is dreadful
- Kai says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 10:24
  
  Did they confirm your eligibility yet? You shouldn’t have paid until they said so.
Froggitt says:

7 Jun7 June 08:18

Cruiseline status matching is also useful….e.g. MSC will give their top (Black?) level matching to other cruiselines like NCL Platinum.
- Craig says:
  
  7 Jun7 June 08:42
  
  Does anyone know if Royal Caribbean status match?
  - Jody says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 12:41
    
    No they don’t, MSC are the only cruise line that status match unfortunately.
  - xcalx says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 12:47
    
    From sister companies Celebrity and Azamara yes. Not heard of any others. We have diamond plus and the benefits are very good. I was hoping to tryout Celebrity Elite benefits last year but the booking got cancelled.
  - Craig says:
    
    7 Jun7 June 12:59
    
    Thanks all.
Gavin says:

7 Jun7 June 13:37

Matching BA Silver to United Premier Gold (Star Alliance Gold) was useful. It’s only a 3 months status challenge, but it allowed me to earn enough miles from a £1k long haul business class flight on Swiss to pay for 4 domestic flights in Japan on ANA. It was worth something like 30% back of the original cost of the flight.
Liam says:

7 Jun7 June 19:44

I’ve managed to make use of the TAP status match on one flight so far—it got me lounge access when I flew LAX to ORD on UA. Otherwise, I’ve not had much opportunity to use it as I’ve only taken a few other domestic US flights recently and none on UA, while TATL flights (which I’ve done on UA several times in the past) are effectively off limits to me right now.

It’s not a status match so much as a status challenge that you pay to enter (and you can may more if you want the status benefits right away) but I did get AA Platinum via their programme.
Ben says:

13 Jun13 June 16:15

I might be missing something here but i can’t see a way I can put in my current status eg BA Silver and see what it can be matched to? Otherwise it seems quite a laborious task