LATAM status match $80USD

[Buggbear]

They sent the don't forget to reply email and that link worked. Just waiting for outcome now.

Good Luck!

 

[quick_dry]

while the lounge question still seems up in the air, what is the situation with LATAM Black and extra baggage on QF flights? (I'm mostly caring abiout it for international,as I don't know whether the Qatar will do a soft landing back to gold or a hard landing to nothing next year)

 

[henrus]

while the lounge question still seems up in the air, what is the situation with LATAM Black and extra baggage on QF flights?

Nope, as clearly outlined here the only elite benefit is lounge access:

Enjoy the benefits of flying with Qantas Airlines | LATAM Pass

Discover the benefits you are entitled to on your flights with Qantas Airlines and go further with LATAM Pass.

latampass.latam.com

If you want excess baggage, I’d say a Qantas club membership can be good if you do the maths- especially on kg based routes.

 

[I love to travel]

Entry into both BNE and SYD J domestic lounge this week.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

I went through the application, then finally balked at the US$80 fee (I'd forgotten about that) and then stopped. Now I get e-mails asking me to resume & apply. I wonder if eventually they'll offer me a discounted price to proceed

Spends $10,000's on flying and now $80 is expensive

I would get in fast. Status Match offers don't last forever.

 

[RooFlyer]

Spends $10,000's on flying and now $80 is expensive

I would get in fast. Status Match offers don't last forever.

Not expensive - unnecessary. Flying business for international, as I do, its not really a 'must have'. Nice to have in back pocket - never know when it might be handy - but the state (frequent lack of) of LAN lounges, and pretty poor reciprocal rights, makes this a US$80 that I can better spend elsewhere.

but I'm happy to be educated - how would it be useful for me?

 

[anat0l]

One thing about status matches... can you only do them once in your life?

Of course it's folly to presume any given status match offer will be repeated (let alone improved) in the future, but hypothetically if it were, could you be status matched again, such that it is not a bad idea to think whether one could tangibly take advantage of the opportunity now rather than (with risk) in the not so short future?

 

[quick_dry]

One thing about status matches... can you only do them once in your life?

Of course it's folly to presume any given status match offer will be repeated (let alone improved) in the future, but hypothetically if it were, could you be status matched again, such that it is not a bad idea to think whether one could tangibly take advantage of the opportunity now rather than (with risk) in the not so short future?

generally only once per account, so it can be handy to have multiple statuses so you can use a less valuable status, (or one you're less likely to maintain) and save an ongoing status for a later match.

 

[trippin_the_rift]

Not expensive - unnecessary. Flying business for international, as I do, its not really a 'must have'. Nice to have in back pocket - never know when it might be handy - but the state (frequent lack of) of LAN lounges, and pretty poor reciprocal rights, makes this a US$80 that I can better spend elsewhere.

but I'm happy to be educated - how would it be useful for me?

If it were free, the same logic would apply.
Therefore, the $80 is irrelevant, and maybe acts as a qualifier to get rid of tire kickers. A good thing for both customer + airline.

One thing about status matches... can you only do them once in your life?

Of course it's folly to presume any given status match offer will be repeated (let alone improved) in the future, but hypothetically if it were, could you be status matched again, such that it is not a bad idea to think whether one could tangibly take advantage of the opportunity now rather than (with risk) in the not so short future?

LATAM I believe, is once-per-account.
Other airlines have said once every 3 years... 5 years...10yrs... lifetime. There is no hard and fast rule.
Frontier Airlines charges a $50 'rematch' fee, basically ane extra charge to status match if you've done one in the past.

Read the T&C to be clear as every offer will be different.

 

[RooFlyer]

If it were free, the same logic would apply

How? It it was free, I'd be getting something possibly useful for nothing and would even encourage me a bit to find a use for it. Since its US$80, its costing me for something possibly useful, but not in the foreseeable (8-10 months of planned travel) future. Not the same thing at all.

Therefore, the $80 is irrelevant, and maybe acts as a qualifier to get rid of tire kickers. A good thing for both customer + airline.

Maybe irrelevant to you, but to me US$80 is $125 which can be better spent. And sure, no probs with them charging a fee to filter out the tyre kickers, and good on 'em, or maybe they could have a status challenge which would at least make me think about flying with them to make the fee worthwhile.

If I always fly Business, as I said, what extra benefits would my A$125 bring me?

 

[trippin_the_rift]

If I always fly Business, as I said, what extra benefits would my A$125 bring me?

Who needs status if you're always in business?

Aside from extra points accrual + maybe a nicer lounge - it's all much the same.

 

[RooFlyer]

Who needs status if you're always in business?

Aside from extra points accrual + maybe a nicer lounge - it's all much the same.

Exactly.

 

[TAK]

shocking experience trying to get over the line - requested screenshots of various card 3 times - then was requested to phot id face over their wired site using the camera on laptop which wouldnt work ( 15 times over a couple of days in different light) wouldnt work at all on iphone - in the end I got my $US80 back; apart from all of that its probably line ball for the benefits

 

[RooFlyer]

A confession . I took, and got the status match from LATAM. I have decided to take a cruise which ends up in Colombia next year and that will entail some more flying around Sth America, almost certainly on LATAM, so the Status Match became worthwhile to me, now.

And lucky I did, as my recent flight SCL-MVD became a LA coded one in whY, not QF codeshare in PE after I had to change the flight to the next day, So I got Groupo 1 boarding, and access to the VIP lounge in SCL. Nice.

 

[SYD]

Is this SM still active? The form at the link still opens, so I’m assuming it still is?

I’ve just booked two LA flights for early next year (SCL-MVD//EZE-SCL). QF classic rewards, so obviously LA codes. We might also book some other flights later.

As 2x QF WPs my understanding is we’ll get lounge access anyway. What additional benefits would this provide - “Group 1” boarding (as just mentioned).

 

[RooFlyer]

Yes, QF WP will get the 'business' lounge at SCL, which Matt G found to pretty good.

I think priority boarding is a very important benefit when flying in South America. As in Australia, there are still quite a few high status borders, but the rest of it is a complete scrum. Not just observed from my present trip but my 3 or 4 previous visits to South America.

During my last flight, the senior FA looked at his phone and then came to me and greeted me by name, but then asked if I speak Spanish ( in Spanish) and with my reply of no, he just said hello again and moved on .

According to @Gold Member ' first or early post, there are upgrades possible.

This Status Match is done through statusmatch.com, not purely LATAM, so I imagine it will still be open.

 

[SYD]

Yeah, I recall the scrums from past visits but LA was OW and we had “Preferente” or the whatever they have.

If I can get the match and update the booking (QF CR), I should also be able to select preferred seats gratis.

There’s two of us on the same booking, so you’d expect most benefits being bestowed (seats, lounge and group). An upgrade on award flights probably won’t happen? But could still be money with spending. We already have sufficient checked luggage allowance, so locker space will be small backpacks each.

 

[goldielucks]

It's a scam. They won't honour my platinum status with another airline since it is not earned. The problem was I earned my platinum status with Airline A which I used to match with status B for four months trial but now my platinum status with Airline A has expired. Funny thing is they approved my status after me sending multiple screenshots until they were satisfied (which was required to get to the passport verification stage) and then after I submitted the passport information they went back and "reconfirmed" my status by asking me to send another screenshot after it was originally approved the first time therefore I was able to proceed with the passport verification stage. What backfired was that I kindly sent a message (replied to the StatusMatch generic initial confirmation email) to the staff that my passport verification was complete and if they can continue on with the process as I had been waiting for a month and if they could continue on and they asked me to resend a screenshot again as if they have never verified it in the first place. If I had been more patient they probably would have approved it since they had already "verified" my status the first time (henec me being able to upload my passport for ID verification). Lesson learned never ask for help in life it always backfires on you...unless you literally have nothing to lose. Guess I just asked the wrong thing at the wrong time but I guess that is how life works.

 

[SYD]

It's a scam. They won't honour my platinum status with another airline since it is not earned. The problem was I earned my platinum status with Airline A which I used to match with status B for four months trial but now my platinum status with Airline A has expired. Funny thing is they approved my status after me sending multiple screenshots until they were satisfied (which was required to get to the passport verification stage) and then after I submitted the passport information they went back and "reconfirmed" my status by asking me to send another screenshot after it was originally approved the first time therefore I was able to proceed with the passport verification stage. What backfired was that I kindly sent a message (replied to the StatusMatch generic initial confirmation email) to the staff that my passport verification was complete and if they can continue on with the process as I had been waiting for a month and if they could continue on and they asked me to resend a screenshot again as if they have never verified it in the first place. If I had been more patient they probably would have approved it since they had already "verified" my status the first time (henec me being able to upload my passport for ID verification). Lesson learned never ask for help in life it always backfires on you...unless you literally have nothing to lose. Guess I just asked the wrong thing at the wrong time but I guess that is how life works.

Sorry to hear that it didn’t work for you. Did you get charged the $80? If so, you should claim that back from your CC. If not, then it’s not exactly a scam.

PS
Welcome to AFF. Hopefully you’ll be more successful with future promos.

 

[RooFlyer]

If I can get the match and update the booking (QF CR), I should also be able to select preferred seats gratis.

On my MVD-SCL flight, I was on QF codeshare. I asked my TA if they could put my LATAM Pass black frequent flyer number in as, although I would miss out on Qantas points, (which I didn’t need) I would get preferential boarding.

The answer was that she couldn’t add it as a frequent-flyer number, but could add it as a 'service request'. So it actually had both numbers on the printed itinerary.

Sure enough, I did get group one boarding, but since it takes so long for partner points to come through to Qantas, I’m not sure whether they will ever appear or not.