Don’t wing it on the subject of flying in style.
If you happen to’re a frequent flyer trying to change airline allegiances — and who could blame you considering the spate of recent heart-stopping incidents within the skies — don’t allow yourself to be held back by your status with a selected carrier.
Nowadays, most major flyers offer seamless methods to match a recent customer’s standing with a competitor.
All that’s normally required is a photograph of a membership card plus a current program statement, based on the experts at ThePointsGuy.
Airlines don’t typically advertise these possibilities to match rewards points, and a few wait until they see a customer traveling a certain variety of miles with them first. Sometimes it takes a bit legwork, like calling or emailing a rep.
For a wealth of further information, ThePointsGuy also recommends visiting statusmatcher.com.
Meanwhile, here’s a taste of how the method works for a few of the hottest carriers with American travelers.
Alaska Airlines
You’ve gotten 90 days to request a match with major competitors including Delta, JetBlue, United, American, and Southwest, per ThePointsGuy. To take care of elite status, a determined variety of miles have to be flown after that three-month period.
American Airlines
This major domestic legacy carrier launched a program called Fast Status Pass two years ago, with the aim of luring loyal customers of chief competitors Delta and United. It may possibly easily be applied to here.
Delta
Delta’s match and challenge status is more global than most, including Lufthansa, British Airways, and Virgin. Currently, those that qualify and meet the necessities of the brand new program will enjoy continuation of their status through January 2026.
Frontier
The airline will not be currently offering its advertised status match program to recent customers, but those interested can join a waiting list.
JetBlue
Although JetBlue — the worst-ranked airline of 2023 — used to have an identical system in place for Delta loyalists, that’s now gone with the wind, based on ThePointsGuy. JetBlue currently has no public match system.
Southwest
Southwest will work with customers who’ve any status of any level with one other domestic airline. Email southwest.statusmatch@wnco.com to initiate the method.
Spirit
The budget carrier’s advertised program is currently closed to recent applicants, who can as a substitute join a waitlist.
United Airlines
This 12 months, United relaunched its match system, which is able to include complimentary status for 4 months as flyers construct up enough points to stay enrolled.