STILL ON: Get oneworld or SkyTeam status via an airline or HOTEL status match

This article has been sponsored by Loyalty Status Co

There are currently two interesting opportunities to use your airline or HOTEL status to get airline status!

You can do this with:

• oneworld via Royal Jordanian (which would give benefits on British Airways), and

• SkyTeam via Vietnam Airlines (which would give benefits on Virgin Atlantic, Air France and KLM)

Let’s look at the two options. Note that an administration fee is required to apply for these matches. The fee is refunded if your match is refused for any reason.

Get oneworld alliance status via your airline or hotel status

Now that British Airways Club is up and running, you may be thinking about how you can earn BA or another oneworld alliance status going forward.

You can get a de facto British Airways status match via Royal Jordanian.

If you have airline or hotel status with most major carriers outside the oneworld alliance, Royal Jordanian will match it.

You can apply here. Only residents of specific countries are included, but the UK is OK. An application fee of $49 (BA Bronze equivalent) or $149 (BA Silver equivalent) is payable.

Royal Jordanian is a BA partner in the oneworld alliance

British Airways may refuse to do status matches, but Royal Jordanian has other ideas.

Royal Jordanian is a member of the oneworld alliance, alongside British Airways. If you have Gold Sparrow status with Royal Jordanian, you will receive virtually all of the benefits of British Airways Silver status when you fly with BA.

• BA lounge access for you and a guest? Tick
• Extra baggage allowance? Tick
• Use business class check-in desks? Tick
• Free seat selection? Tick
• Priority boarding? Tick

Priority security is NOT a oneworld Sapphire benefit but you will get it when flying with British Airways. You need to check with other oneworld carriers.

Your Royal Jordanian status will also be valid when flying with all of the other oneworld carriers – Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, American Airlines, Qantas etc.

Which airline and hotel statuses is Royal Jordanian matching?

You can match status from the following programmes to Royal Jordanian. I have listed the status level you need to get Gold Sparrow status with Royal Jordanian, which is equivalent to British Airways Silver.

Silver Jay status with Royal Jordanian, equivalent to British Airways Bronze, is also available if you have the next lowest elite tier with any of these programmes.

To get British Airways Silver equivalent status (ie Royal Jordanian Gold Sparrow) you must have:

• Air Europa (Gold, Platinum)
• Air France KLM (Gold, Platinum, Ultimate)
• Egyptair (Elite, Gold, Platinum)
• Emirates (Gold, Platinum)
• Etihad (Gold, Platinum)
• Gulf Air (Gold, Black)
• Kuwait Airways (Gold, Platinum)
• Lufthansa et al (Senator, HON Circle)
• Middle East Airlines (Gold, Platinum, Presidents Club)
• Oman Air (Gold)
• Saudia (Gold)
• Scandinavian Airlines (Gold, Diamond, Pandion)
• TAP Air Portugal (Gold, Navigator)
• Turkish Airlines (Elite, Elite Plus)
• Virgin Atlantic (Gold)

If you have a lower elite tier with an airline listed above, you should be eligible to receive Silver Jay. This is not a lot of use, in the same way that British Airways Bronze status isn’t too valuable. The key benefit is free seat selection on BA seven days before departure. That said, you may consider the $49 fee for Silver Jay to be worth it for the seat selection benefit when flying BA.

You can match your hotel status to Silver Jay

Royal Jordanian is matching selected hotel status cards to its Silver Jay tier.

This is equivalent to British Airways Bronze status, with the key benefit being free BA seat selection within seven days of departure.

It will match:

• Accor Live Limitless (Silver and above)
• Brilliant by Langham (Topaz and above)
• GHA DISCOVERY (Gold and above)
• Hilton Honors (Silver and above)
• IHG One Rewards (Silver and above)
• Marriott Bonvoy (Silver and above)
• Preferred Hotels / iPrefer (Silver and above)
• Radisson Rewards (Premium and above)
• Shangri-La Circle (Gold and above)
• World of Hyatt (Discoverist and above)
• Wyndham Rewards (Gold and above)

Your Royal Jordanian status will last for 12 months.

There is a special website for the status match which is here. I recommend you read the FAQ and T&C before proceeding.

You will need to sign up for a Royal Jordanian account before applying for your match. There is a link on the status match site.

Get SkyTeam alliance status via your airline or hotel status

The Royal Jordanian match is great if you want to get status that you can use with British Airways. However, what happens if you ALREADY have British Airways status and want to leverage that?

Vietnam Airlines, a SkyTeam member, has been running a status match offer for the last few months.

You can use your British Airways Club status to get a direct match into the Lotusmiles programme. This includes giving Lotusmiles Platinum status to British Airways Club Gold members. The match also includes major hotel loyalty schemes.

Your elite status would be valid across all 18 airlines in the SkyTeam alliance, including Virgin Atlantic.

You can apply here.

Whilst there is a fee to apply, this can be less than you initially think. I explain why below.

Which airline statuses is Vietnam Airlines matching?

The key one, for our readers, is obviously British Airways:

• BA Club Bronze will get you Lotusmiles Titanium (SkyTeam Elite)

• BA Club Silver will get you Lotusmiles Gold (SkyTeam Elite)

• BA Club Gold will get you Lotusmiles Platinum (SkyTeam Elite Plus)

Virgin Atlantic status is NOT being matched, unsurprisingly, since it is a fellow member of the SkyTeam airline alliance with Vietnam Airlines.

You can also match from the following airlines: Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, ANA, Asiana, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, Cathay Pacific, China Southern, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, EVA Air, Egyptair, EL AL, Emirates, Ethiopian Airlines, Etihad, Finnair, Iberia, Icelandair, Japan Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Malaysia Airlines, Philippine Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Royal Brunei, Royal Jordanian, Shenzen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Southwest, Sri Lankan Airlines, SWISS, TAP Air Portugal, Thai Airways, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin Australia and WestJet.

Click here and go to ‘FAQ’ to see exactly what level is matching to what, as some are more generous than others.

Which hotel statuses is Vietnam Airlines matching?

This is what is on offer:

• Accor Gold / Silver, Hilton Gold / Silver, Hyatt Discoverist / Explorist, IHG Gold / Silver, Marriott Gold / Silver, Radisson Premium / VIP, Wyndham Gold / Platinum will get you Lotusmiles Titanium (SkyTeam Elite)

• Accor Diamond / Platinum, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Globalist, IHG Diamond / Platinum, Marriott Titanium / Platinum, Wyndham Diamond will get you Lotusmiles Gold (SkyTeam Elite)

It is not possible to match hotel status to Lotumiles Platinum (SkyTeam Elite Plus)

As you may have spotted, both Titanium and Gold tiers give you the same SkyTeam status level – Elite. I will return to the significance of this later.

What status benefits do I get with Lotusmiles?

You can see the status benefits you get with each tier here when flying with Vietnam Airlines.

The benefits of Titanium and Gold, which match from BA Bronze and BA Silver respectively as well as hotel status cards, are mainly around priority check-in, additional baggage and seat selection.

Titanium and Gold are equivalent to SkyTeam Elite. This gets you, on every SkyTeam airline:

• Priority check-in counters
• Priority boarding
• Extra baggage allowance

Platinum is where it starts to get interesting, which is what a BA Gold member gets. At this level you get a card which is equivalent to SkyTeam Elite Plus.

Elite Plus gets you lounge access, with a guest, whenever you fly with a SkyTeam carrier.

It is important to note you cannot match your hotel status to a level which gets you airport lounge access with SkyTeam. The highest you can get is SkyTeam Elite (Lotusmiles Titanium and Gold) which gets you the benefits listed above.

The SkyTeam website here looks at the benefits of SkyTeam Elite (Lotusmiles Titanium and Gold) and SkyTeam Elite Plus (Lotusmiles Platinum).

Which airlines can I get benefits on with my Vietnam Airlines status?

Your status is valid across the entire SkyTeam alliance, which now comprises 18 airlines:

• Aerolíneas Argentinas
• Aeromexico
• Air Europa
• Air France
• China Airlines
• China Eastern
• Delta Air Lines
• Garuda Indonesia
• Kenya Airways
• KLM
• Korean Air
• Middle East Airlines
• SAUDIA
• SAS
• TAROM
• Vietnam Airlines
• Virgin Atlantic
• XiamenAir

I need to flag one thing about Virgin Atlantic. There is a carve out from SkyTeam rules for the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Heathrow Terminal 3.

If you have Platinum status with Vietnam Airlines, you cannot use the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in Terminal 3 (unless, of course, you are flying in Upper Class with Virgin). You will be sent to another lounge in the terminal. You also cannot use the Upper Class Wing to check-in – you need to use the Upper Class desks in the main terminal.

This rule does NOT apply to other Clubhouse lounges – only Heathrow T3.

(SkyTeam Elite Plus members are also blocked from the Saudia lounge in Heathrow Terminal 4. Saudia restricts access to its own passengers.)

It is important to note that both Lotusmiles Titanium and Lotusmiles Gold match to SkyTeam’s Elite level. You get an identical level of alliance benefits irrespective of whether you do the Titanium or Gold match.

Your Vietnam Airlines status will last for 12 months.

How do you apply for your status match?

Vietnam Airlines and its processing partner, Loyalty Status Co, have an application website here.

There are application fees:

• Titanium: $99
• Gold: $159 via an airline match and $199 via a hotel match
• Platinum: $299 (not available via a hotel match)

The fee is refunded if your match is refused for any reason.

You can save $60 or $100 by applying for Titanium instead of Gold

The application website automatically defaults to the highest level of status you can get. You may not want this.

For example, a British Airways Silver member or a Marriott Bonvoy Platinum member may be happy with Lotusmiles Titanium instead of Lotusmiles Gold. You save $60 or $100 on the fee and the benefits are the same when you are flying with SkyTeam partner airlines, as both give you SkyTeam Elite equivalent status.

You should be asked during the match process if you want a lower level of status than you could get. If this option does not appear, say on the application form that you have a lower level of BA or hotel status than you actually do. It doesn’t matter that you will be uploading a scan of a higher status BA or hotel card – your match will still validate.

Should you go for it?

If you currently have British Airways elite status and are thinking of giving the world of SkyTeam a try, this is a good opportunity.

It should be especially interesting if you live outside the Heathrow catchment area, since SkyTeam members KLM and Air France have excellent connections – KLM and its codeshare partners fly from 17 regional airports including some you wouldn’t expect, such as Norwich and Humberside – to the world via Amsterdam and Paris.

You can find out more, and apply, on the status match website here.

One of these two matches may be right for you

This is a long article, I know, but we can simplify it like this, from the viewpoint of a UK reader:

Do you have NO British Airways status at the moment?

If not, consider using your airline status elsewhere to match to Royal Jordanian, as high as Gold Sparrow (equivalent to British Airways Club Silver) or use your hotel status to match to Royal Jordanian Silver Jay (equivalent to British Airways Club Bronze).

Do you already have British Airways elite status, or would prefer status with SkyTeam (Virgin Atlantic, KLM, Air France etc)?

Consider using your British Airways or other airline elite status to match to Vietnam Airlines, as high as Lotusmiles Platinum (SkyTeam ElitePlus) or use your hotel status to match as high as Vietnam Airlines Lotumiles Gold (SkyTeam Elite).

You can learn more about the Royal Jordanian oneworld match, and apply, here.

You can learn more about the Vietnam Airlines SkyTeam match, and apply, here.