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Get British Airways Bronze equivalent status for $49 by matching virtually any HOTEL status!

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We’ve talked a lot about airline status matches recently. Many airlines have become a lot more aggressive in their attempts to poach the best customers of their rivals.

If you have elite status with any airline alliance, there is probably a route out there to get status with any other alliance.

However, what happens if you don’t have elite airline status to start with?

Wouldn’t it be great if you could use your HOTEL elite status to get elite airline status?

And wouldn’t it be even better if you could do this to get some limited status benefits with British Airways?

Now you can, for a period, albeit for a small fee.

You can apply here. But read on first.

Royal Jordanian status match

Royal Jordanian has been running an on/off status match from other airlines for a while.

It has now extended it to anyone with elite hotel status.

To take part, you must live in the UK or Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey or the UAE.

The application form allows you to select other countries but you will be rejected if you select one which is not listed above.

Royal Jordanian is a BA partner in the oneworld alliance

British Airways will respect your newly minted Royal Jordanian status.

Royal Jordanian is a member of the oneworld alliance, alongside British Airways. If you have Silver Jay status with Royal Jordanian, which this match gets you, you will receive virtually all of the benefits of British Airways Bronze status when you fly with BA:

  • free seat selection within seven days of travel
  • use of Club World, Club Europe or oneworld equivalent business class check in desks, regardless of your flight class
  • priority boarding

The official ba.com page outlining the benefits of Bronze status is here.

Your Royal Jordanian status will also be valid when flying with the other oneworld carriers – Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, American Airlines, Qantas etc. Benefits at oneworld Ruby level vary by airline however – you may not get free seat selection with all carriers, for example.

Royal Jordanian Silver Jay card

Which hotel statuses is Royal Jordanian matching?

I have listed the status level you need to get Silver Jay status with Royal Jordanian, which is equivalent to British Airways Bronze:

  • Accor (Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver)
  • Global Hotel Alliance (Titanium, Platinum, Gold)
  • Hilton (Diamond, Gold, Silver)
  • Hyatt (Globalist, Explorist, Discoverist)
  • IHG (Diamond, Platinum, Gold, Silver)
  • Langham (Ruby, Sapphire, Diamond, Topaz)
  • Marriott (Ambassador, Titanium, Platinum, Gold, Silver)
  • Melia (Platinum, Gold, Silver)
  • Preferred Hotels (Titanium, Gold, Silver)
  • Radisson (VIP, Premium)
  • Shangri-La (Diamond, Gold, Jade)
  • Wyndham (Diamond, Platinum, Gold)

You can’t get lounge access via this match

Before I go on, you need to know that Royal Jordanian has different status tiers to British Airways. When I talk about ‘Silver’, you need to note which airline I am discussing.

Royal Club, the Royal Jordanian programme, has three elite levels:

  • Platinum Hawk is the same as British Airways Gold
  • Gold Sparrow is the same as British Airways Silver
  • Silver Jay is the same as British Airways Bronze

Royal Jordanian is not matching hotel status cards to Platinum Hawk or Gold Sparrow status. However high your hotel status, you will only get Silver Jay (BA Bronze equivalent). This gets you free seat selection on BA within seven days of travel.

Royal Jordanian status match

How long will my Royal Jordanian status last?

12 months.

Do I need to put my Royal Jordanian status in my British Airways bookings to get my benefits?

You will definitely need to put your Royal Jordanian number into future BA bookings to get free seat selection.

You would need to swap the frequent flyer number in your booking at check-in to earn Avios and tier points. You could also do it in the lounge if there was a BA ticket desk.

The easiest way is to use the ‘Manage My Booking’ function of another oneworld airline such as Royal Air Maroc – oddly, you can amend all aspects of a BA booking via other airline sites.

(ba.com has been deliberately hobbled by their IT team to stop you changing the frequent flyer number in a booking, although the call centre can do it. Other oneworld airlines are not so restrictive.)

The bottom line is that you need a boarding pass in your hand at the time of boarding which shows your BAEC number if you want to earn Avios and tier points, instead of Royal Jordanian miles and tier credit.

Frankly, for short haul flights which earn minimal tier points or Avios, you might as well put your Royal Jordanian number in your booking and leave it there. You’re not losing much.

Is there a fee for the status match?

Yes. There is a $49 application fee for Silver Jay status.

You should make a substantial saving on British Airways seat selection, which would be available for free from seven days before travel and for everyone on your booking – not just you.

How do I apply?

You will need to sign up for a Royal Jordanian account before applying for your match. There is a link on the status match site.

The terms state that your match will be processed within five business days.

The match is being processed by a third party, statusmatch.com, so you will see references to them whilst applying. Ensure you read the T&C to be sure that you have the correct status in order to make a match.

There is a special website for the status match which is here.

Category

oneworld alliance partners

Comments (158)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Jake says:
    29 Aug29 August 07:35

    I presume this would work for an already booked avios flight. I could still change the FF number and get free seat selection?

  • Tony says:
    29 Aug29 August 07:50

    Every BA lounge will be full now…premium pax turned away!!

  • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:04

    “You could also do it in the lounge if there was a BA ticket desk.”

    And at which airports are these unicorns to be found??

    • Pablo says:
      29 Aug29 August 08:18

      Galleries North has some kind of BA kiosk with an agent in it.

      • daveinitalia says:
        29 Aug29 August 09:05

        Strictly speaking these are not ticket desks as BA doesn’t train staff at the airports in ticketing anymore. Simple stuff (hopefully changing the frequent flyer number is one of them) can be done but anything complex needs them to call ticketing – unless you happen to get someone who’s been there a while and was trained in ticketing before they stopped doing that.

      • S says:
        29 Aug29 August 09:05

        Even B gates lounge has some kind of kiosk that presumably offers such a service

    • Rui N. says:
      29 Aug29 August 08:27

      LGW lounge has an agent

    • AJA says:
      29 Aug29 August 09:15

      Not sure why the mention of being able to change status in the lounge – bronze status doesn’t get you lounge access so you’ll have to be flying Club to be in the lounge in the first place which means you’ll already have a seat allocated.

      • MattB says:
        29 Aug29 August 09:53

        Someone flying CW/CE but with no status would only be able to select seats 24 hrs out.

      • Rob says:
        29 Aug29 August 09:54

        That is a very good point and what happens when you take an old article and try to restructure it for a tweaked promotion 🙂

  • LittleNick says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:06

    “Frankly, for short haul flights which earn minimal tier points or Avios, you might as well put your Royal Jordanian number in your booking and leave it there. You’re not losing much.” Not always, eg if you’re flying in Club Europe and want the TPs credited to BA and double BA Holiday TPs as well, you wouldn’t get double status points with your RJ number in

    • Stu_N says:
      29 Aug29 August 08:11

      Rob clearly referring to discounted economy tickets that earn 5/10 TPs here.

  • AJA says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:14

    Another benefit of BA Bronze status (won’t help being RJ Silver Jay) is that it is enough to prevent all member’s Avios expiring in a HHA. Of course a redemption will also do the same trick but it is useful if you have members of the HHA who don’t earn many Avios and you are saving up for a redemption.

  • Wally1976 says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:14

    Ok, we have CW flights out to HND and WT back from SIN next summer (both booked with Avios) and the Amex Platinum hotel statuses. For LHR-HND we are in the older CW seats I believe (the later flight).

    So to clarify, I sign up for the Royal Jordanian FF scheme, then apply for the status match using Hilton or Marriott gold status, then change just my FF number on the flight bookings using the Finnair or Royal Air Maroc websites. Then hey presto we can book seats 7 days ahead of our flights for all 4 of us on the bookings?

    I really can’t decide whether this is worth it. I never normally pay for seat reservations and we end up near enough next to each other (although youngest daughter turning 13 soon, does that change the allocation algorithm?). Decisions decisions!

    (Apologies for rambling post, just working things through in my head)

    • Lumma says:
      29 Aug29 August 08:26

      Yes. One other benefit is boarding group 3 for short haul, which pretty much guarantees getting your cabin bag on board

    • Kevin C says:
      29 Aug29 August 10:49

      Bronze equivalent status will be very useful at Singapore if you are in WT. You would be allowed to use the business check in counter.

  • Craig says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:29

    RJ account opened and status match from Hilton Diamond approved – all in less than an hour. Have BA flight to JFK and return from MIA coming up and figured that it’s worth $49 for these popular routes since my experience is that, unless you pay BA’s extortionate ransom a few days prior to the flight, you end up sitting apart from your travel companion, especially in the popular PE cabin.

  • Phantomchickenz says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:38

    Any indications on how long the promotion will run for? I can’t see a date in the T’s &C’s.

    No travel booked for the next couple of months, so would like to maximise the 12 month validity period.

    • JDB says:
      29 Aug29 August 08:44

      Like Aldi’s WIGIG promotions, these things work better without an end date. They will probably stop it at the sooner of a pre-determined but unpublished date or reaching a target number of matches.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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