Hey everyone, how's it going? It's Ernest from Trip Astute. In this video, I'm going
to be sharing a popular technique used in the travel community called status
matching which allows you to potentially get loyalty status with a hotel or
airline if you already have status with another program.
(light chiming music)
I want to thank Anthony
B. for suggesting that I cover this topic. Airline and hotel status matching
is a very popular topic within the travel community and getting status with
a specific hotel or airline can often mean additional perks and benefits. So in
this video, I wanted to review the process and also share some tips and
tools that you can use. Before we get started, if you're new here, welcome to
our channel. Trip Astute is a travel channel that is focused on sharing ways
to make travel easier, affordable, and more enjoyable. Traveling can be
stressful and expensive, so we're looking for ways to help you maximize your
experience through travel tips, points and miles, and innovative gear. If that
sounds interesting to you, please consider subscribing. When I used to
travel a lot for work, I would stay primarily at Hilton hotels
and fly United. It made sense for me to do this at the time since the company that
I was working for had an arrangement with Hilton hotels and United offered a
direct flight from my home airport to my client's city. I was on that project for
about a year and a half and was flying almost every week, so I racked up a lot
of United and Hilton points, and was able to get loyalty status on both. Then I
found myself on a completely different project in another state. Ironically,
United and Hilton weren't going to work for me either
since it was cheaper to fly Delta and stay at a local Marriott hotel. But I
didn't really want to start over and have to build up status with these
companies. So instead, I used a status match with both Marriott and Delta to
get status with these companies. This meant that I got priority boarding
during flights and usually a better room at the hotel. That was a while back,
but the concept is still the same. If you happen to have status with a hotel,
airline, car rental, or any other travel related program, you can often ask a
competing company if they will match the status. You might be wondering why would
they want to match the status? Well, these companies know that if you
have loyalty status with them, you're more likely to use their services over the
competition. When the cost between two airlines, hotels, or car rental services
is similar, having loyalty status can sway a
customer one way. These companies know that and they want you to feel connected
to their program. So suppose you have status with an airline, hotel, or car
rental service, and you want to see if a competitor will honor the status, where
do you start? Well, a good place to begin is statusmatcher.com. This website is a
community driven site where people can share their experiences requesting a
status match. Most of the posts follow the same format where they show you what
program they were using to establish proof of status.
You'll also see statistics of how many reported posts were a match, challenge, or
denial. A match basically means that the company matched the status or even
provided a higher one without requiring any additional qualifying actions, like
flying X number of flights or segments within a certain time period or spending
X amount of dollars. A challenge means that the company requires you to complete
some kind of action to be granted a full match. This is meant to confirm that
you're serious and committed to their loyalty program. What I like about Status
Matcher is that they also mark companies that are likely to offer a match or
challenge. This can save you quite a bit of time rather than just applying
without actually knowing whether it's going to work. You can actually see how
others in your exact situation have fared and whether they have any tips to
share for the process. If a company asks you to provide proof, you may have to
send a photo of your status card or screenshot of your account. You may also
have to provide some kind of justification of why you want to have
status with their company, as well as your recent travel history. If you're
looking to do a status match, here are some tips to keep in mind. Number 1:
Consider requesting a status match before a big trip. If you have a big trip
coming up but you're flying with an airline or staying at a hotel where you
don't have status, it might be worth trying to get a status match in order to
get some free perks. Things like priority boarding, lounge access, extra baggage
allowance, and free breakfast can make a difference and really enhance your trip.
Number 2: Status matches are usually granted only once. One thing to keep in
mind is that the companies will usually grant a status match once. There are a
couple exceptions to this rule, but it's generally not something that you can
request over and over. So going back to our first point, you may want to be
strategic about when you ask for a status match. You'll definitely want to
do it when you have a chance to travel with that company and potentially meet
any challenge requirements. Number 3: Don't fake your status. When providing
proof of your status, I would avoid sending in any altered or photoshopped
screenshots or images. This might have worked in the past, but the airlines have
gotten a lot more savvy when it comes to cross-checking your status. My advice is
just to avoid it. Just like with credit cards, it's not worth getting a bad mark
in your record or compromising your relationship, especially when you don't
know if you ever want to do business with them in the future. Number 4:
Apply for a status match during the second half of the year: The reason you
want to try during the second half of the year is that if you're granted status, it
usually carries over to the following calendar year. If you get it earlier in the
year, you'll likely only to have status until the end of the current calendar
year. Number 5: Understand the difference between EQMs, EQDs, and EQSs.
These stand for Elite Qualifying Miles, Elite Qualifying Dollars, and Elite Qualifying
Segments. I won't go into a detailed explanation of each, but just know that
each airline has different guidelines and qualifications for these terms. In
the last few years, status has become a lot more complicated.
Even if you fly a lot of miles with a specific airline, let's say on points, you
might not earn status since you haven't flown enough segments or spent enough
money on fares. Also, to make things even more complicated, sometimes the points or
bonus that you would get from a credit card doesn't qualify as an EQM or EQD.
It basically comes down to the airline. So just know that you'll need to dig
into the rules just to be safe. Number 6: Look for mergers and
acquisitions. The travel industry is constantly evolving. Airlines get
purchased by other airlines and the same happens with hotels too. Recent examples
are Alaska Airlines acquiring Virgin America and
Marriott acquiring Starwood. While these mergers and acquisitions can be
stressful when it comes to valuing your point currencies, you can often use these
situations to get an easy status match, so keep that in mind.
Number 7: Get status via a credit card. If you're like me and you're not
traveling much for work, then you're probably not going to be looking to get
a status match any time soon. So an easy way to get a bump in status is by
getting a co-branded or premium travel credit card. For example, I keep my United
MileagePlus Explorer card since it lets me board just before the general
boarding call and gives me more award seat availability. I also have a few
hotel cards that often make me eligible for additional benefits, as well as a
free night every year which is worth more than the annual fee of the card.
Have you ever done a status match? If so, let us know in the comment section below.
Also, let us know if you have any tips for others looking to do the same. If you
enjoyed this video or found it useful, please give us a thumbs up and consider
sharing the video with others. It really helps us to grow the channel. Until next
time, travel safe and travel smart.