This is pretty hot. You can get American Airlines business class Flagship Lounge access on all of your flights – even domestic flights – if you have mid-tier status with another airline.
oneworld member Royal Jordanian has a status match offer. When it was first launched, U.S. residents weren’t eligible. That’s changed. In fact, I’ve just submitted a status match request to their Gold Sparrow level.
My match was approved – and new status reflected in my account – within a few hours.
Key details:
- The cost to match to Gold status – which is oneworld sapphire – is $149.
- Application results within 5 business days, status valid for 12 months
- You need to join Royal Jordanian Royal Club first. It can be hard to navigate there from the airline’s website! Here’s the link.
- You’ll need to submit proof of your current airline status – photo of status card, or screen shot of your online account that shows status level and account number.
- They also offer status matches to hotel programs, but only to their silver level which doesn’t get you the lounge access that’s most valuable here.
oneworld sapphire and emerald members can use the American Airlines Flagship lounge at LAX and elsewhere
Some of the programs they will match against:
- Air Canada Aeroplan: 50K status and above;
- Air France KLM Flying Blue: Gold and above
- Lufthansa Group airlines: Senator and above
- Delta SkyMiles: Gold and above
- Frontier Airlines: Platinum and above
- JetBlue: Mosaic 2 and higher
- SAS EuroBonus: Gold and higher
- Southwest Rapid Rewards: A-List Preferred and Companion Pass
- Spirit Airlines Free Spirit: Gold
- Turkish Miles & Smiles: Elite and higher
- Vigin Atlantic: Gold
Naturally, oneworld anti-poaching rules mean that Royal Jordanian cannot match against American AAdvantage or Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan status.
Greenwich Lounge, New York JFK
Greenwich Lounge, New York JFK
Status is valid for a year, and if you want to requalify you need 26 segments or 30,000 miles. The status offers a complimentary upgrade per year on Royal Jordanian flights as well as immigration fast track and airport priority.
But the real gem is that it is oneworld sapphire status, which gets airport priority and baggage with oneworld partners and business class lounge access on oneworld airlines when flying with oneworld.
So you get lounge access when flying Alaska Airlines and American Airlines – Alaska Clubs, American’s Admirals Clubs, and American’s business class Flagship lounges. Specifically, eligible business class lounges include:
- New York JFK (Greenwich lounge)
- Chicago O’Hare (Flagship lounge)
- Miami (Flagship lounge)
- Philadelphia (Flagship lounge)
- Dallas – Fort Worth (Flagship lounge)
- Los Angeles (Flagship lounge)
American Airlines Flagship Lounge Chicago O’Hare
American Airlines Flagship Lounge Chicago O’Hare
Of course you gain access to great oneworld business clas lounges like the Cathay Pacific and Qantas lounges at London Heathrow terminal 3 as well, even if flying economy.
Qantas Business Class Lounge, London Heathrow
Cathay Pacific Business CLass Lounge, London Heathrow
As a formal matter you are supposed to credit the miles for your trip to Royal Jordanian if you’re using the benefits of British Airways status. I have never had this enforced – I’ve always been able to have lounge agents look up my oneworld status while crediting trips to American AAdvantage.
American Airlines Admirals Club, National Airport E Concourse
For those of you with status in an eligible program that is an amazing and rare offer. oneworld frequent flyer programs rarely status match U.S. members.
I don’t live in a city with a Flagship lounge. I already have access to Admirals Clubs and Alaska Lounges with my Citi Executive card. But I’ll spring the $149 for the status match to get 12 months of access to Flagship lounges on my connections, and when departing from airports that have them. For value comparison, a new American Airlines Admirals Club membership – that doesn’t offer Flagship lounge access – starts at $850.
American Airlines Flagship Lounge, Philadelphia
I’ll get plenty of use out of Royal Jordanian oneworld status .. even though my connections usually aren’t that long, and there are lounges I can use in each of these cities already. I’ve never been turned away from a Flagship lounge due to overcrowding, though some do get crowded at peak afternoon transatlantic departure times. So they can be useful when there are waits for a Capital One, American Express or Chase lounge.
I’m AA sapphire and was at T4 last week did not get flagship access
With my lounge-granting BA elite status biting the dust, I need a back-up to my AA elite status for airline lounge access when flying AA or AS domestically. This will work nicely for me as I with this I can easily save multiple times over $150 in food costs at airports.
Comment section seems a bit glitchy in hard to tell if the comment has been submitted or not.
Well, here it is again:
With my lounge-granting BA elite status biting the dust, I need a back-up to my AA elite status for airline lounge access when flying AA or AS domestically. This will work nicely for me as I with this I can easily save multiple times over $150 in food costs at airports.
AA Sapphire on “domestic” US flights doesn’t come with AA lounge access.
Gary, you’ll always be our Gold Sparrow!
@Tomri — That’s because AAdvantage is cheap to its own elites (not providing them with Flagship access), but with a different OneWorld member (like Royal Jordanian), they do provide access for Sapphire and Emerald. Nuance.
@GUWonder — Where’ve you been? VFTW has had an issue with comments for about two weeks. Maybe Gary did a faulty update, or he’s been hacked. Gotta get creative to ensure your comment posts without duplicates these days.
Seems like a great way to make the already very marginal Flagship lounge experience even more subpar through more overcrowding.
Hello 1990, been reading your comments more than posting in recent weeks. You know the world is a little too interesting place nowadays, that too takes up time — and I’ll blame Heritage Foundation for a bunch of it. 😉
The FLs as it is are extremely crowded, particularly in the afternoons. I guess the goal is to make them as loud, crowded and uncomfortable as the Admirals Clubs. So much for that idea of “premium.”
Can I still book AA flights using my usual AA Advantage number and get my Plat Pro benefits, but access the lounge under my status with Jordinian? Or do I have to list my Jordinian number to access the lounges, essentially forfeiting my Plat Pro benefits?
How long will the match stay up? I don’t have any AA flights for awhile. Wondering whether I should wait for a bit.
You would think they wouldn’t include LCC’s like Frontier and Spriit as a qualifying airline for status match. Didn’t Frontier have a way to purchase elite status a while ago?
Do you get guest priviledges or is just for yourself
To clarify, is companion pass on SW itself sufficient (without A list)?
I gotta say, this is just further evidence that the current leadership at AA has no clue how to execute in terms of making the airline more premium. This will be a huge step backwards as it becomes impossible for a revenue J passenger to find a seat in the FL at locations such as DFW during peak hours. It’s just a terrible idea, effectively robbing Peter to pay Paul.
What do you need to show at the Admirals Club entrance, the Royal Jordanian app showing your membership level?
Anonymouse, it didn’t say.
I imagine it will go as long as RJ wants the status match fees, and until American pressures them to shut it off. They’re going to get hundreds of people that have no intention of ever flying RJ or using one of their lounges.
When does the Royal Club status match promotion end?
Royal Jordanian Airlines and StatusMatch.com reserves the right to end the promotion or vary it at their discretion.
Looking to clarify:
For match to Southwest, do I need to be BOTH A-List Preferred AND have a Companion Pass (as the one who earned it)? Or do I just need to be EITHER A-List Preferred OR have earned a Companion Pass?
@gary – The RJ website is pretty awful. The City field is a drop down menu and not all the cities are listed for the state that I am in (and cannot enter your own city), so I cannot sign up for the ff program. Rather disappointing. Such a bad website design. Is anyone running this issue when trying to sign up for an RJ Royal Club account?
American Airlines Flagship Lounge, Philadelphia: they call this a lounge? it doesn’t look lounge-worthy. unless there is more to it, not shown.
do you have to be flying AA or partner airline to use the lounge? or if flying other airline, can still use? 1 person or more?
Does sapphire status get you access to lounges to domestic flights? I thought it was only for International flights regardless of class.
@platini. Same issue for me. Will dig into Flyertalk etc to see if there are workarounds
I don’t suppose that status allows you to bring a guest into said lounge, am I right?
@Neal, thanks for looking into this. I totally forgot about flyertalk. Might be good to share this with everyone on this page.
Just tried and not open now to USA
Not open to USA residents anymore 🙁
No longer open to USA residents.
This status match must’ve had the life expectancy of a k shell electron.