Qatar Airways Privilege Club Status Match Successfully Granted!

After applying for a status match with Qatar Airways Privilege Club some weeks ago, my request has finally been approved and I received complimentary gold status.

Status match

Those of you who have followed this blog lately might have read my previous article about the Qatar Airways status match in which the airline promised to hand out free Oneworld elite status to qualifying frequent flyers.

To be precise, frequent flyers holding Emirates, Etihad, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Turkish Airlines or Virgin Australia elite status were able to ask Qatar Airways for a status match to an equivalent status within their Qatar Airways Privilege Club programme.

Privilege Club

Given that I hold Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles elite status (Star Alliance gold) and do not have any status at all with Oneworld airlines, this seemed like a no-brainer to me.

Sure, the Qatar Airways Privilege Club might not be the best Oneworld frequent flyer programme there is. If starting from scratch I would have probably gone for the British Airways’ Executive Club as my to-go programme to collect frequent flyer miles and to build up status.

Yet I figured that even if in the case I would not fly a lot with Oneworld airlines to retain my status (which is likely), this would still be a great opportunity to have one year of complimentary lounge access and to receive some other benefits.

Request granted

I can happily report that my status match request has now been approved, almost three weeks after filing the request. My Turkish Airlines elite status was matched to Qatar Airways gold status, which corresponds with Oneworld sapphire status.

Although this gives me benefits such as business lounge access, priority check-in and boarding as well as an extra check-in bag and a higher mileage earning rate, I’m most excited about the 40 Qcredits which every gold member receives.

Free upgrades

These Qcredits can be used for upgrades into business class, with 40 Qcredits being for example enough to upgrade a one-way journey London-Doha-Delhi from economy class to business on both segments.

Whatever my flying plans are for the next year will look like and to which airline groups my allegiance will go out to (I do have top SkyTeam and Star Alliance statuses to maintain) I will for sure try to fly Qatar Airways at least once to make sure these free upgrades will not go to waste.

Qatar Airways has an excellent business class product, with their Qsuite product on some of their wide-body aircraft widely being considered as the best business class in the skies both in terms of seat and food and beverage service.

In short

Although there is no way telling when the current corona (COVID-19) crisis will be over and normal travel life will resume, I am pleased with the status match to Qatar Airways gold status.

Whether or not I will make use of the benefits a lot and switch my flights over to Oneworld airlines is still open for debate as up to now I tend to go for SkyTeam and Star Alliance airlines as I hold the highest status with both and offer the best connectivity and prices from my home airport.

However, even if I end up not flying Qatar Airways and their Oneworld partners a lot, I will for sure make good use of those complimentary Qcredits to upgrade a Qatar Airways economy class flight to business. Besides that, the mere fact that I’m holding elite status with all three airline alliances is quite cool too, even though it’s highly unlikely I can maintain my status with all three of them on a long term.

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