Ckfred From United States of America, joined Apr 2001, 4658 posts, RR: 1 Posted (5 years 11 months 2 weeks 5 days 8 hours ago) and read 3614 times:
My wife recently started a new job, and she's learned that the company is contractually required to buy a certain number of seats on United. At her last job, she could pretty much fly any carrier that she liked, although she had to get a little creative to avoid US. For a variety of reasons, including being 25 minutes from ORD, she flies AA and had gotten Gold status.
If the company insists on her flying United, can she request that United give her its equivalent of AA Gold status? She flew AA almost exclusively last year to get the Gold perks (first-class check-in, first-class security line, exit row seats, upgrades, Group 1 boarding, and priority on the stand-by list), so she is loath to fly United and suffer through non-elite status.
EI A330-200 From Sweden, joined Apr 2001, 409 posts, RR: 5 Reply 1, posted (5 years 11 months 2 weeks 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 3571 times:
Quoting Ckfred (Thread starter): If the company insists on her flying United, can she request that United give her its equivalent of AA Gold status?
Yeah, that ain't gonna happen. Why would they reward her for flying another airline when she had the choice of flying UA? Its actually even worst because you live sooooo close to ORD.
N844AA From United States of America, joined Jul 2003, 1352 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (5 years 11 months 2 weeks 5 days 7 hours ago) and read 3560 times:
I don't know if UA does this, but I did this last year, switching from AA to CO. CO matched my status on AA (mid-tier elite), and in fact renewed that same level of status despite the fact that I missed the EQM mileage cutoff for that tier last year.
I still have a soft spot for AA, but man, I haven't looked back.
You could probably find out UA's procedures on Flyertalk, though I'm sure someone here will be able to chime in with more useful information.
New airplanes, new employees, low fares, all touchy-feely ... all of them are losers. -Gordon Bethune
764 From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 608 posts, RR: 0 Reply 3, posted (5 years 11 months 2 weeks 5 days 6 hours ago) and read 3523 times:
No frequent flyer program gives you the right to transfer elite status from another airline, BUT most airlines will be extremely happy to put you in gold status, since they know you are a frequent flyer and they also know that you are willing to switch most if not all of your business over to them. They'd be fools to turn you down. Usually all it takes is a letter to the customer service dept. or the mileage program service department.
OA260 From Ireland, joined Nov 2006, 24924 posts, RR: 60 Reply 4, posted (5 years 11 months 2 weeks 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 3391 times:
Yes a letter to customer services and the FF dept with a copy of your FF status with the other airline to prove your status usually would work. It worked fine for me . Star Alliance actually had a promotion at one time to ''status match''.
OLYMPIC AIR - ΟΛΥΜΠΙΑΚΗ "Η ΕΛΛΑΔΑ ΨΗΛΑ" "GREECE FLYING HIGH"
Terryb99 From United States of America, joined Sep 2004, 291 posts, RR: 0 Reply 5, posted (5 years 11 months 2 weeks 5 days 2 hours ago) and read 3389 times:
Quoting Ckfred (Thread starter): f the company insists on her flying United, can she request that United give her its equivalent of AA Gold status? She flew AA almost exclusively last year to get the Gold perks
It's called a "comp" status, and yes, UAL will do it. I was a comped Premire Exec in 2006, but did not fly enough with them or Star Alliance to keep it. Barely kept my NW Platinum status.
Call the UAL mileage plan dept, and they will give you the fax number and department. They asked me for a fax of my last NW mileage statement and a letter)memo) requesting comped status.
DeltAirlines From United States of America, joined May 1999, 8771 posts, RR: 13 Reply 9, posted (5 years 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 23 hours ago) and read 3248 times:
Only airline in the US that I can think of that doesn't comp status outright is AA - they have the Gold and Platinum Challenge, where if you fly 5000 or 10000 Elite Qualifying Points in 90 days (respectively), you earn the status. Most airlines only match up to the Gold level (mid-tier); CO is the only one that matches up to Platinum (top-tier).
With UA, AA Gold will equate to Premier status on United. While I've heard upgrades as a 2P (UA's code for Premiers) are tough, I have a friend that managed to game the system into getting a ton of CR-1s or their equivalent and had a better upgrade percentage than me. 500 mile upgrades are going to be tough though, especially out of DEN since that's a UA hub and has a ton of UA flyers. At least with Premier, you'll have access to Economy Plus, which is very nice; those extra 5 inches of legroom make a huge difference. Premier is worth it just for that; you'll also get check-in at Business Class counters (First if there are no Business Class counters), Group 1 boarding, special reservations number (though you still get sent overseas), discount on the Red Carpet Club, stand-by priority, and 4 500 mile upgrades for every 10000 miles flown. With Premier status on UA, there is no access to the priority screening line; that is reserved for Premier Executive, 1K and Global Services (which by default are a minimum of Premier Executive even if they don't fly 50,000 miles a year due to Globals being Star Gold).
Asuflyer05 From United States of America, joined Feb 2004, 2369 posts, RR: 3 Reply 10, posted (5 years 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 23 hours ago) and read 3228 times:
Quoting EI A330-200 (Reply 1):
Yeah, that ain't gonna happen. Why would they reward her for flying another airline when she had the choice of flying UA? Its actually even worst because you live sooooo close to ORD.
They do it all the time. Infact I am going to renew my Elite status on CO this year and have US match it so I can start flying places non-stop.
Quoting Fdex727 (Reply 8): Check this site out, it has the phone numbers and everything needed to obtain a status match.
Status Match Master Thread
Fdex beat me to it. It's a pretty seamless process.
NonRev From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2006, 48 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (5 years 11 months 2 weeks 4 days 1 hour ago) and read 2996 times:
It depends what company she works for and what sort of agreement was put into place by UA. Maybe speak to her travel dept. as UA will sometimes put in 'Status Match' for a limited amount of time. Failing that, find out the contact details for the sales office and drop them a line, Sales people will do anything to get bums on seats, ANYTHING...
Sponsor Message: 
From United States of America, joined Apr 2001, 4658 posts, 
From Sweden, joined Apr 2001, 409 posts, 
From Ireland, joined Nov 2006, 24924 posts, 
From Vatican City, joined Aug 2006, 1640 posts, 
From Slovakia, joined Jan 2004, 814 posts, 
From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2006, 48 posts, 
Printer friendly format 
