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Five Airlines with the Best Status Match Programs

Airlines have powerful incentives to hold on to their customers. After all, it is much easier to sell products and services to repeat customers, meaning that they are much more profitable than their one-time counterparts. As a result, airlines offer incentives to their repeat customers, thus binding said individuals closer and closer to themselves. Of course, this means that other airlines have powerful incentives to claim the repeat customers of their competitors as well, which in turn, means that they are willing to offer said individuals incentives for that purpose. Status match is one of those incentives, which is when airlines are willing to offer interested individuals with status in some other airline's incentive program similar status in theirs. Something that tends to make them much more willing to make a change when they have already built up status somewhere else.

Here are five of the best airline status match programs that can be found out there:

Alaska Airlines Status Match

When it comes to status matching, Alaska Airlines can be a bit old-fashioned, which is not a bad thing for interested individuals. In short, they can status match by sending proof of their elite status as well as the number of miles that they have earned so far to the website that Alaska Airlines runs for this exact purpose. After which, the airline will go about determining what it wants to hand out, which can be as good as the top tier in its elite status program.

American Airlines Status Match

American Airlines is interesting in that it has been known to offer better deals than normal when it comes to its status match programs. As a result, when interested individuals come upon such opportunities, they might want to take a very close look at them because their conditions can be quite nice. Otherwise, interested individuals will have to pay for the chance to take the American Airlines challenges, which will require them to fly for either the required number of miles or required number of segments as well as pay the required amount of money. For Gold status, interested individuals can claim it by spending $1,000 as well as fly either 7,000 miles or 8 segments. In contrast, people who want Platinum status will need to spend $2,000 on top of flying either 12,500 miles or 16 segments. Naturally, if interested individuals want their miles and segments to count, they will need to be eligible for American Airlines's elite status program.

Delta Status Match 

Delta has one of the simpler and more straightforward status match programs in that interested individuals should have no problems whatsoever finding the relevant information on their website. Like a lot of the other airlines, it runs a challenge. As a result, interested individuals will need to send in proof of their elite status before completing the challenge to secure elite status with Delta. In total, interested individuals have 90 days to work with, which they will be expected to use building up enough points for them to secure the tier that they are interested in. For example, Gold status demands a total of 12,500 Medallion-qualifying miles, whereas Platinum status demands a total of 18,750 Medallion-qualifying miles, which makes sense because better benefits require very visible proof of increased commitment.

Southwest Status Match

Southwest offers a challenge for those who are interested. In short, interested individuals have 90 days in which to either take 3 round-trip flights, take 6 one-way flights, or earn a total of 8,000 points. Once they have done so, they can walk away with A-List status for six months, though they might want to send in proof of their elite status with other airlines for further benefits.

United Status Match

People with elite status at either American Airlines or Delta are mentioned as being eligible to take United's challenge. However, people with elite status at other airlines might be eligible as well, which is why interested individuals might want to check by calling in. Regardless, people who take United's challenge have 90 days to meet the requirements for its three tiers, which are based on either Premier-qualifying miles or Premier-qualifying segments. So long as interested individuals meet one of the two for the tier that they are interested in within the time allotted to them, they can claim elite status with United at said tier.

Garrett Parker

Written by Garrett Parker

Garrett by trade is a personal finance freelance writer and journalist. With over 10 years experience he's covered businesses, CEOs, and investments. However he does like to take on other topics involving some of his personal interests like automobiles, future technologies, and anything else that could change the world.

Read more posts by Garrett Parker

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