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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.

Statusmatcher review

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, openly matches the airline status of anyone with a Premium or Upper Class flight booked – see here.

I have written about specific matches on Head for Points in the past.  Hilton and IHG have been very aggressive over the last year – you will normally be given status for 90 days or so with the chance to retain that status by doing a handful of stays. Keep an eye on HfP to be notified about these offers as they come and go.

(The Hilton status match I wrote about here is still ongoing. However I would wait until April because it should flip forward a year by then and be offering status until March 2026.)

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.

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.

Comments (18)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Nick says:

    I believe that Best Western still have their ‘Status Match No Catch’ offer available. We were staying at one of their hotels over Christmas, so gave it a go. They matched my IHG Diamond status to their top tier, ‘Diamond Select’ until March 2025 (I think you can probably now get March 2026). Frankly, there’s very little difference between their tiers, except for reward point multiples, but we hoped that we’d have more chance of an upgrade if others were trying. We did!

  • krys_k says:

    The Hilton match is not open to anyone who already holds gold (which I have via Amex Platinum). I’d like to match my Marriott Titanium and could put lots of nights into Hilton if they offered up Diamond. At least in my case their status match looses Hilton my business (I’m of course insignificant to the bottom line; but lots of folks like me together could be).

    • Guernsey Globetrotter says:

      Just open another account using a new email address, complete the status match and then ask to merge with your old account (if the history is of value to you).

  • Rob says:

    It’s not as if StatusMatcher is trying to sell you anything or even ask for any of your data! If you find it useful, contribute an experience of your own. If not, don’t.

  • ba says:

    It is common to mask who.is data and, as the website says, it is operated by Statusmatcher LLC out of Conshohocken, PA. If you wanted to, presumably you could make enquiries with the Department of State to obtain further information about the company including the names of its officers. I’m not sure why this matters though…

  • Jay says:

    The status match site referred to on Flyertalk is statusmatch.com not statusmatcher.com which was the subject of the article.

  • jj says:

    My view on life is that businesses with status schemes are best avoided unless I have status with them, as the value proposition is inevitably worse due to the discounts offered to status holders.

    So, for airlines, use a LCC unless you have status. For hotels, use independents and ignore Marriott, Hilton, etc unless you have high-end status. For supermarkets, always go to a discounter unless you carry the requisite membership card.

    So a status match is the only way that I would, for example, begin to fly with a *A carrier or stay in a Hyatt.

  • Polly says:

    It was VERY useful when CX stopped their Gold card obtained with Amex Platinum card. QR status matched us to their equivalent, as we were using QR a lot then back and forth to the ME. And good old Air Berlin too. So it meant we could retain BA Silver equivalent for years. It was quite useful seeing who was having success or failure to match at the time.
    It was a bit more tricky to navigate, the last time l looked.

  • Tim says:

    I got status match with Latam from another airline.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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