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 an offer of United 1K status for 120 days. That’s a trial status, and you aren’t eligible for the trial but that won’t stop the person selling this. Would you pay $330 for four months of 1K status? It’s probably not a good idea, though it might work out fine.
Is this legit? Can 1K Status be bought like this on Ebay?
by
u/Professional-Ad1770 in
unitedairlines
These companies never tell you much about themselves, how they’re giving you the status or who is doing it. And they often cycle through company websites, phone numbers, and contact names.
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. And if that happens to you, you aren’t just out your miles but probably the money also.
Loyalty programs will sell you elite status. They just don’t like competition! United used to sell you their version of Concierge Key for $75,000 in prepaid travel. Airlines sell you status buy backs and upgrades all the time. So they’re not against diluting status levels and benefits as such, just against when other people do it.
If it sounds too good to be true, probably is…
@1990 – Meh..
@1990 – does it sound “too good to be true” that a reasonably smart kid from anywhere in the US who gets into a reasonably good undergrad, gets into a T14 law school, becomes an associate and works reasonably hard, will earn $5-10MM a year by age 35-40 as equity partner of a top law firm?
You don’t even really need the T14. “tiffthelawyer” (Instagram) went to Vanderbilt and is at Davis Polk.
Paul Weiss has hired many associates from the T25. Barshay, their new chair, is the top M&A lawyer in the country.
Many people think 8-figure incomes are unattainable barring extreme luck. While one does need to have been born reasonably smart and have a life mostly free of adversity, those conditions describe a ton of people in their 40s and 50s who don’t even make 7 figures.
Bottom line – what exactly constitutes “too good to be true” may need to be calibrated!
@Manhattan West (EWR) — Welcome back, sir. So, are you really at One Vanderbilt these days?
Also, was that you over at OMAAT as ‘Hugh P. Ness’ for a little while? Gave me a chuckle. I know you are often into the creative names.