If flying in J on a *A and *G status can you just use an alternate *A lounge. We are travelling SQ EWR-SIN and SQ use the Virgin Clubhouse and I noticed on the web UA have opened a new lounge at EWR which looks better than most. I am interested to know if Mrs&MissM will be able to get access to the UA lounge based on class of travel. As *G I have not thought about this in the past as I get access.
I will find out in a couple of months. This 3 of us travelling with *A is starting to do my head in, I am confident in my understanding of the OW rules and even most of the QR, AA, BA quirks and it also helps that there are 2 OWE between the 3 of us. Also I did take onboard your advice posted up thread signing MrsM up to Miles & Smiles and requested a status match. She has around 9 weeks to find out if she will be sitting in the AC terminal or the loungealthough I'm not sure if the United Polaris lounge might have specific rules about flying J on United (a bit like the Qatar lounges in DOH).
But an international J or F ticket on a Star Alliance airline is enough to get in.
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Matt thanks for the advice on the TK status match. I signed MrsM up to Miles & Smiles and then requested a match to her QF WP followed the steps suggested in the article and received notification that she has been upgraded to elite. The process was relatively painless and took about 2 weeks but some of this was our delays in getting the information they wanted. It is unlikely that she will retain post the 4 months however the purpose of the match was to get all of us into the AC lounges.If you decide on Turkish, you might like to try for their status match/challenge.
Matt thanks for the advice on the TK status match. I signed MrsM up to Miles & Smiles and then requested a match to her QF WP followed the steps suggested in the article and received notification that she has been upgraded to elite. The process was relatively painless and took about 2 weeks but some of this was our delays in getting the information they wanted. It is unlikely that she will retain post the 4 months however the purpose of the match was to get all of us into the AC lounges.
These are the terms that came in the email.Great!
Did TK say what MrsM would need to do to retain her status longer than 4 months? It used to be that you just had to take one TK flight.
These are the terms that came in the email.
There are a few details about your upgrade to Elite that we’d like to tell you about:
It also had other information about the benefits which are pretty much standard *G benefits. Some other information about the match they were happy to accept her current digital card however I had included a photo of the last physical card she had with a 21 expiry. I did run into some challenges in providing flight history as the standard out of the box QF print version did not provide all the information they required. I did try just sending a screenshot but they would not accept that. Eventually I was able to get the information they were after in a single document.
- The first 4 months of your Elite membership is considered as the trial period. Within this period, you are required to realize at least one Turkish Airlines international flight in which you gain miles.
- At the end of the trial period, if your membership account includes at least one Turkish Airlines international flight in which you gained miles, your Elite membership is prolonged for 8 months more.(i.e. it remains valid for 1 year in total after the match).
- If you reach 15,000 Status Miles in the international flights you will perform with Turkish Airlines in the first year of your Elite membership, your membership is extended for 1 more year (i.e. it remains valid for 2 years in total after the match).
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I believe this has changed last week. I received an email from United MileagePlus suggesting that PQPs are earned on VA, and I checked the list of partners on the UA website and it appears that now VA is indeed a preferred partner. Please see this post for more detail.United members can access benefits when flying on Virgin Australia, however no Premier Qualifying credit is given for Virgin Australia flights.
I don't think this is true for SQM's. I credit my wife's VA flights to Aeroplan, and she does seem to earn SQM's for the flights. If you go to the Air Canada airline partners page and click on details for Virgin Australia you will see it says:it is not possible to earn Status Qualifying Miles, Segments or Dollars with Air Canada’s Aeroplan program for Virgin Australia flights.
*Status Qualifying Miles (SQM) are only earned on Domestic flights, defined as flights within Australia.
Hi Matt
Just read this very useful and through article. It's a great resource.
I do have a couple of corrections for you:
I believe this has changed last week. I received an email from United MileagePlus suggesting that PQPs are earned on VA, and I checked the list of partners on the UA website and it appears that now VA is indeed a preferred partner. Please see this post for more detail.
I don't think this is true for SQM's. I credit my wife's VA flights to Aeroplan, and she does seem to earn SQM's for the flights. If you go to the Air Canada airline partners page and click on details for Virgin Australia you will see it says:
Yes I just wish we’d known that from the start. I’d already given up on retaining my UA Gold and have been crediting flights with VA and AC to Velocity. If I’d put everything on MileagePlus and taken one more UA sector while I was in the US I probably would’ve made it. I don’t like it when the rules change (same goes for Qantas with their unexpected status extensions making all the crediting to Qantas a waste this year). Oh well there’s always next year.That change to VA earning on United makes the United MileagePlus program significantly more attractive for Australians. Very good news!
Don’t use Krisfyer unless you are flying in J.Any thoughts on where to credit AirNZ flights?
I’m heavily tied to QF due to my regional base, but a role change has me now flying to and within NZ a few times a year. Hoping to keep QF to cross the Tasman and stay clear of the codeshares. I’m unlikely to ever get gold status with NZ or another star alliance airline. Already enjoyed previous status matches with United, Turkish and Aegean airlines in the past.
I’m thinking of using KrisFlyer as it allows transfer to Velocity or better redemption prospects using points from credit cards.
My domestic fares will be seat+bag minimum. My current ticket is Q class which the KrisFlyer charts say is 100% accrual.Don’t use Krisfyer unless you are flying in J.
Most Y flights earn zero on SQ on Domestic NZ and TT