Leverage is everything isn’t it? It’s important to remember that having status with one airline doesn’t mean that you just receive benefits with that particular airline. You have benefits across their entire network of alliance partners. Meaningful benefits like lounge access, priority security, and business class check in save time and create peace in the chaos that is an airport. Using your status with one airline and leveraging it into status with every other airline and alliance separately is the golden goose of this game. Sure, you need to get a status to start off with but once you have one, you can have them all.
Star Alliance Gold is a very generous status. Like SkyTeam, Star Alliance offers a fairly binary process and you are either top tier or low tier. Two of the three statuses you can match to through this Avianca route will match you into Star Alliance Gold, the highest Star Alliance status. Indeed, Avianca, Colombia’s little brother of an airline doesn’t want to be outdone by rival Copa and decided they would like to entice flyers in with a match of their own. Reports are that as the Copa status matches I wrote about last week went on, they got tighter. Good news, the Avianca match is fresh and they appear to be matching anything from any airline, even all the way to their top tier.
Another easy no brainer here for anyone with status, anyhwere. To clarify to the weary: you don’t lose your current status with your preferred airline by matching, you don’t have any obligation to fly or earn miles with the airline, it’s just a tremendous way to ensure that you fly like a VIP even if you can’t fly your preferred carrier or alliance. Who doesn’t like free lounge access, priority security and business class check in, especially when it’s with Singapore Airlines, Lufthansa, United, Thai and many other great airlines? Find me one! Get on this while it’s hot by registering for Avianca’s program first and then emailing promo.amigo@avianca.com.br with a copy of your current elite card from any airline and your (new) Avianca program number. It never hurts to include a nice sentence or two about the airline and their value to you. Drinks are on me, in the lounge where they are free using your free status of course.
HT: ViewFromTheWing/Amol.
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