Overview of lifetime airline status tiers & requirements

[AFF Editor]

Many frequent flyers consider lifetime status to be the "holy grail" of airline loyalty.

Around 21 airlines that are part of Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam currently offer some form of lifetime status, and Virgin Australia will add its own "Forever Gold" tier later this year. In this article, we compare all the options:

Which Airlines Offer Lifetime Status?

We compare the lifetime status tiers offered by 22 airlines including Qantas, and explain how to earn it.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

Do you have lifetime status with an airline, or are you working towards it? If so, which frequent flyer program did you choose, and how did you/will you get it?

 

[clifford]

I have lifetime UA Platinum status (*G), earned over 25 years of flying 2.5 million miles with United and Continental, mainly in the USA. It also comes with the same lifetime status for my wife, and lifetime membership of the United Club (lounge access).

So not too bad really, but I no longer fly UA or travel to the America's (by choice), so it's mainly useful for lounge access when flying other Star Alliance airlines (and VA). Not much use for avoiding paying for seat selection though (an issue with most Star airlines, unlike One World).

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

There is already a FlyerTalk thread with a fuller listing there: Lifetime status by airline -- attempted summary - FlyerTalk Forums

The above article misses:
Star
Air China
Egypt Air
Sky
Vietnam Airlines
Non Alliance
Philippine Airlines
El Al