You can earn elite status by traveling with an airline and spending nights in hotel beds. You can get some of the benefits from status with the right credit card. And once you have status with one, many programs will match your status because you look like a valuable customer.
There are shadier ways to get status, too. Sometimes you’ll find status for sale. There are usually two ways that this works.
- Someone is using forged credentials to sign you up for a status match. Maybe they alter their own account statements in photoshop or similar and submit those to a program to get you status.
- Someone is selling status given to them, either as a benefit for their own status (the ability to gift status to another member) or for their company as a perk. Many companies get to assign a certain number of status or status challenges based on corporate travel spend, but may not need them all and many choose to monetize that status instead.
I’ve even seen American Airlines Concierge Key sold on eBay. While I wouldn’t pay $2,000 for 3 months of status, ConciergeKey – the status that George Clooney had in Up In The Air – is certainly special including top priority for upgrades; airport escorts and even occasional vehicle transfers on the tarmac during tight connections; access to Flagship business class lounges; and a next flight guarantee during irregular operations to ensure they get to their destination.
Here’s a website with a broad array of elite status on sale. They call it “Envy Traveler” which is pretty funny. (HT: Jonathan) I especially love that they have several airline statuses “on sale.”
They say they also sell status on eBay but the account they link to is dead. So maybe airlines have already caught onto them, but they’ll still take your money.
These companies never tell you much about themselves, how they’re giving you the status or who is doing it. Another similar company AirlineStatus.com even has a page about their ‘people and culture’ that doesn’t mention any of.. their people.
I worry that a loyalty program might (1) take away the status they’d granted, and (2) possibly even lock the account of the person who bought that status. So it seems like a bad idea.
Loyalty programs will sell you elite status. They just don’t like competition! United will sell you their version of Concierge Key for $75,000 in prepaid travel. American Airlines has sent out purchase offers for Gold and Platinum AAdvantage status, for instance. So they’re not against diluting status levels and benefits as such, just against when other people do it.
If you were so much against buying statuses under the table and probably against the program terms of service, then why are you giving advertisement to the shady places that sell them? You can mention what goes on without providing the websites and especially links to them.
@Daniel – I see this as general knowledge rather than a way to game the system. If anything it’s cautionary.
Why legitimize it with a link I agree with Daniel
Some people like to check out for themselves what is out there — including the shady stuff — for no other reason than to get informed and “see it for themselves” how the world really is rather than “taking your word for it”. Part of that can be done by providing real examples.
As someone who used to get hassled a lot for “where is the URL/website” — as if all info landing in my lap would come from websites :rolleyes: — I can understand there exists demand for wanting to see for themselves what stuff is on the internet too found by the blogger and others.
For a hundred bucks or so, I think I’m going to purchase one of these simply out of curiosity. Lock out my FF account? Lol, I couldn’t care less about losing the ability to accumulate their worthless miles.
WOW thanks for the links!!!!
Great deal, I think I am going to buy UNITED!!!!!!!!!!!
Just another way to screw the Airlines. Many travelers don’t pay anything for the privilege and fuss about the over crowded lounges. There are too many “elites” that think they are important even though their respective companies pay 100% of their travel expenses. Than these “elites” complain & moan about everything and trash the people in the back of the airplane. Just an observation that does not apply to most “elites” and frequent flyers.