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Skyteam is often considered to be the least attractive airline alliance, with members such as: Aeroflot, Air France, Delta, Alitalia, Garuda Indonesia, etc. But occasionally it is necessary to fly on a Skyteam airline, so wouldn’t it be nice to enjoy elite status? One Skyteam member is offering a status match, but you’ll need to hurry. The deadline for applying is midnight on Friday, 21 December, 2018.
The Skyteam partner in question is Aerolineas Argentinas. Strangely enough, not only is the airline willing to consider status matching any non-Skyteam airline, but it is also willing to status match from hotel status, with Hilton Honors specifically mentioned.
How to Request the Status Match?
Step 1. Become a member of Aerolineas Plus. Click here to sign up. Make sure to write down or screenshot your assigned account number, as you will need it to login (and may not receive an email confirming your membership).
Step 2. Send an email to [email protected] with the subject line “DESAFIO STATUS MATCH“. In the body of the text, you could write:
Buen dia. Me llamo [insert full name] y mi número de socio Plus es [insert membership number]. Pido que me igualen mi estatus con [insert airline / hotel chain].
Reciben un cordial saludo. [full name]
(of course you can just write in English if you prefer – although the T&Cs of the status match are only provided in Spanish)
Step 3. Attach proof of competing status. Either a screenshot of your account or a scan of your membership card. The most important element is that said status must not expire within the next three months.
If you wish to read the terms & conditions through an auto-translate function, you can click here. The most interesting clause is number 4:
The airlines and hotel chains participating in the Challenge are: Latampass, Gol Smiles, Avianca LifeMiles, Iberia Plus, United Mileage Plus, AAdvantage, BA Executive Club and Hilton Honors. This list is open, and any other airline or hotel chain submitted by the applicant is subject to approval by Aerolíneas Plus. Skyteam alliance airlines are not eligible to participate in the Challenge.
Why Bother?
If successful, you will receive one year of Gold or Platinum status from Aerolineas Plus. The standard Skyteam elite benefits are:
- Lounge access
- Priority check-in and boarding
- Excess baggage
But perhaps more importantly, those without any airline status at all – but with Hilton Honors or another top tier hotel chain status – can obtain their first airline elite status. Subsequently, you could cross your fingers and hope that 2019 offers a status match from Aerolineas Argentinas TO a more attractive Oneworld or Star Alliance programme.
HT to my Argentine friend Julio.
Thanks. Let’s see if this actually works! I imagine they’ll be deluged with requests!
Their mailbox has been full since midday yesterday so I don’t expect these to get processed very quickly, if at all.
Ah, ok! As i fear..
(Also, as for Lounge access – that’s only for Elite Plus according to Skyteam’s website) and I bet they’ll only give out Elite equivalent (gold).
Platinum is definitely on offer, but it’s completely at Aerolineas’ discretion. Maybe Hilton Diamond or Marriott Platinum Premier, and surely BA Gold, etc.
But indeed it might be slow processing, especially if one of the big US blogs picks up the offer.
What are the c code and a code in the registration form?
Google Translate suggests it’s a ‘country field’ – maximum of three characters. No idea!
Tried 044 for the country code. Seemed to work. Clicked accept and was shown an image of a membership card. No email confirmation. Doesn’t seem to have worked.
If you got the pop up image with teh card it has the number. You can then log in with that and the password you filled in in the sign up and see your profile /account has been created. For me at least that worked. i also didnt get an email.
of course signing up in itself doesnt get you very far. They need to upgrade us after we sent our emails.. that i dont know if will hapen!
I closed the popup window so I don’t have the number. I’d expect a confirmation email with these details.
There’s no option to send it to your email address if you don’t have it. This is a very weird registration process.
you can click “Forgot your Frequent Flyer Number?” on thier website, it then asks for your id doc and dob. and presumably then sends an email. Good luck!
https://www.aerolineas.com.ar/en-ar/aerolineas_plus/about_aerolineas_plus
Tried that, thanks. I got back:
“Advice
Your Frequent Flyer Number is: 0. Your registered e-mail is: xxxxxxx@”
Oh! seems broken then, indeed! Sorry to hear that!
It’s the oddest registration process I’ve come across. For example, you select your country from an alphabetical list, but ‘United Kingdom’ is between Gabon and French Guyana.
When I signed up, I chose passport for my ID and entered the number… but when it asks for the same details in order to get your Frequent Flyer Number, ‘passport’ doesn’t come up in the list of options!
I will try and repeat the registration process. Let’s see if it works this time.
Nope. I tried and it gave me an error message – ‘There are data that are already discharged.’ Just goes to show that you cannot expect registration processes to be the same in every country in the world… I expected these details to be sent to my inbox but they don’t send them. Suspect this will catch quite a few people out. Oh well!
LOL. “Gran Bretaña” falls between Gabon and Guyana.
I was looking at the English version of the website.
I know, but this is very common on foreign language designed websites where the ranking comes before the translation. For example, Spain is often found in the “E”s on websites such as Iberia Plus.
Craig, to prevent anyone making the same mistake I made (and not being able to take advantage of the offer) it’s worth adding a warning to the article to copy and paste the Frequent Flyer number they give you in the popup window. If you don’t copy that number down, you can’t log in.
Good idea. Done.
Belt, braces and grab your trousers approach for me. Screenshot the card, copy the number and straight away add it to AwardWallet. (Read here if you don’t know what that is – https://insideflyer.co.uk/2017/07/keeping-track-of-all-your-points-miles-with-awardwallet/)
Email sent, let’s see what they offer from Hilton Diamond.
Even without the number I sent the email anyway with some of my registration details, in the hope that they’ll be able to identify my account.
I”m not Hilton Diamond anymore, so I have tried my Diamond Select status at Best Western. Not hopeful, but I have nothing to lose.
How will we know if/when the status has been upgraded?
I can’t find anywhere in my Aerolineas Plus account which tells me what status my account is!!
I suspect that Award Wallet would track it for you.
Looks like you do get a confirmation email, albeit a day after signing up. I got excited thinking the status match had gone through, but thanks to Google Translate, this is what they sent;
“Always remember to inform this number of Member No. XXXXXXXX when you make a reservation to travel on Aerolíneas Argentinas / Austral or any of the associated airlines or at the time of check-in.
From now on you add miles with your trips and with the products and services of our Associated Companies.
To start operating on the web, enter now at http://www.aerolineas.com.ar/viajerosfrecuentes click on the option “First time I enter”, complete the form with your data and choose a password for your account that must be between 6 and 8 alphanumeric characters.
From My Plus Account you can check your balance, redeem your miles for tickets, check your latest movements and request the accreditation of flights made.
Keep in mind that the email address you register is the address where you will receive the monthly statement with important information of your account, remember to keep it always updated.
Know more benefits, associated companies and current promotions at: http://www.aerolineas.com.ar/viajerosfrecuentes.”
Fingers are still crossed for status match….
Any got his status matched ?
I never had any reply from them, not even a confirmation that I’d set up an account.
I sent a follow-up message today but that email address is now bouncing.
Yeah me too Neil… original ignored and re-send just bounced 🙁
I very much doubt this offer will be honored somehow.
What a waste of time that was :-/
Can’t win em all. Got to be in it to win it, and maybe the next hack will be rewarding 🙂
Yeah. You have to be fairly relaxed about these kinds of opportunities. Some work out, some don’t.
A number of Argentine friends were successful, but clearly the airline had no real intention (or resource) for the entire world to become involved…
PDF of multiple physical cards were shared December 20, 2018.
March 21, 2019 reply
“According to the terms and conditions of the promotion, Aerolíneas Argentinas reserves the right to reject any application at its sole discretion.”