Back in April British Airways ran a status match offer available to U.S. customers. American Airlines executives hit the roof. But it was a great deal, and I took advantage of it to access American’s Flagship lounges when flying domestically.
That’s lucky, because with the deal to be acquired by Air France KLM, Scandinavian leaves Star Alliance for SkyTeam they’re offering a status match and British Airways Silver and Gold match to SAS EuroBonus Gold.
- The match offer is available through August 30
- SAS EuroBonus Gold is SkyTeam Elite Plus starting September 1, which gets you priority services from Delta
- Just be sure to list the address of your SAS EuroBonus account as being in one of the listed countries (U.S. is not on the list)
Oddly they don’t even make you upload proof of your status although it’s possible they might ask some people for verification. Status lasts through March 31, 2025 but can be extended another year with 5 paid SAS flights.
What makes this especially interesting is that through September 30, Lufthansa Miles & More will match SAS status and EuroBonus Gold is eligible for Lufthansa’s Senator status. Is it weird that I want to be a Lufthansa Senator, even though I already have access to United Clubs when traveling domestically?
Lufthansa status lasts through February 28, 2025 and six qualifying paid tickets by November 30 will extend it a year.
There are other status match opportunities available, of course. For years many have used Turkish Airways status to access United Clubs, and SkyTeam airlines which don’t have to offer lounge access on domestic itineraries to partner elite members have regularly offered match opportunities.
I especially like this one because it is exceptionally rare to have access to a Lufthansa status match, because this one was intended to be very limited since SAS is leaving Star Alliance, but SAS EuroBonus status happens to be quite accessible right now.
(HT: Head for Points)
@ Gary — Go for LH SEN. You get 50% off companion awards and can buy miles cheap during Bundle&Go promos. M&M miles for about 1.25 cpp combined with Companion Awards can score you LH F awards for 1 cpp. Not a bad deal with the expanded availability for SENs. Also makes your Barclay’s AF zero if you carry the LH card. Book way in advance to take advantage of schedule changes. Those can be quite lucrative if you know how to play them.
@ Gary — There are some major problems with this:
1) You must live in Europe to take advantage of the SAS match and
2) LH will not approve those who chain match
Bottom line, this doesn’t work.
How do you become Eurobonus Gold in the first place?
SAS elite status won’t come with lounge access for domestic itineraries in the US. And it’s to be seen what further restrictions Delta may put on using lounges when flying Delta.
Interesting
Lowering the threshold for club access and rewards alienates the frequent flyers these programs where designed for, customer retention.
When everyone has status, nobody has status.
Lufthansa declined status match if SAS euro bonus was achieved via status match
It worked for the first few hundred people, but then LH caught on and started declining without proof of achieving status through flying