StatusMatcher – what tier matches can you get from your existing airline and hotel status cards?
Links on Head for Points may support the site by paying a commission. See here for all partner links.
A ‘status match’ is when you approach an airline or hotel company with proof of your high status with a competing airline or hotel group. You then ask to be immediately upgraded to the equivalent level with that company.
This is not unreasonable since it encourages customers to switch brands. People would otherwise be unwilling to give up their status benefits with the other group by starting from scratch with the new company.
We’ve had a lot of coverage of ‘status matches’ on HfP in recent months. You should keep an eye on HfP to be notified about these offers as they come and go.
The craziest one is Radisson’s offer of top tier VIP status to virtually everyone (a status which leads to suite upgrades at most hotels), the latest one is Flying Blue’s attempt to poach British Airways customers and most interesting was Royal Jordanian’s offer (now closed) of BA Silver status equivalent if you had top tier hotel status.
Whilst these are organised, well funded and well promoted status matches, many other airlines and hotel chains will offer the same if approached ad-hoc.
Many other airlines and hotel groups offer UNOFFICIAL status matches. You won’t find the details on their website, but they will do it if you ask. Marriott has run a Platinum Elite challenge in the past for example – it is how I first got my Bonvoy (well, Marriott Rewards as was) top tier status.
statusmatcher.com is a site which I think HfP readers should know about, as it does offer a useful service to regular travellers. I have no idea who runs it or where it is based, but it has been around since 2007 and has a lot of contributors.
Some groups love giving status matches, others don’t. British Airways will almost never status match, unless your company signs a major deal with them or you have a relationship with an overseas office. That said, it did do an offer for US residents in 2024.
Virgin Atlantic, on the other hand, openly matches the airline status of anyone with a Premium or Upper Class flight booked – see here.
The Hilton status match has been running for many years. However I would wait until April to apply because it should flip forward a year by then and be offering status until March 2027.
The point of the StatusMatcher website is to provide a central point where people can report successful or failed status matches. It gives other readers a feel for who is worth approaching.
As statusmatcher.com has become more established, the data has become more reliable and more up to date. You tend to need a decent level of feedback on any particular programme before you can ascertain a trend.
There is never a guarantee that a particular airline or hotel chain will match you even if it matched someone else. On the other hand, if you have a number of flights booked with an airline then you might be successful where someone else failed. Despite this, StatusMatcher does give you useful guidance and is worth adding to your arsenal of frequent flyer tools.
The Original Nick. 
John 
John 
Paul W 
Andrew J 
BA Flyer IHG Stayer 
Rob 
Barrel for Scraping 
Tom 
Chris 
Ryan 
E 
Red Flyer 
Bath Rd boycotter 
Nick P 
blue_wolf 
Steph231 
Simon 
Comments (32)