(Update: More Airlines Added) Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Offering Status Match

Update 1/5/22: When Virgin Atlantic Flying Club launched this status match promotion back in November, there were only 7 airline loyalty programs with whom you could match your status.

They’ve now tripled the number of airline programs to 21 which might make this something you can now take advantage of if you have status with one of the 14 newly added airlines. h/t OMAAT

In the unlikely event that you have status with South Africa Airways, they’ve also improved the status match mapping. Previously you couldn’t match from Silver status, Gold matched to Virgin Atlantic Silver and Platinum matched to Gold. Now Silver status matches to Silver status, while both Gold and Platinum status with South Africa Airways match to Gold status with Virgin Atlantic.

Here’s the original post with the additional eligible airlines included in the list below.

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Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has launched a new promotion offering to status match from several different airlines.

The Deal

• Match your status from the following airline loyalty programs to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club when having a future revenue flight booked with Virgin Atlantic in any cabin class.
  • Virgin Atlantic Silver Status – match from:
    • Air New Zealand Gold
    • Alaska MVP Gold
    • American Airlines Platinum Pro
    • British Airways Silver
    • Cathay Pacific Gold
    • El Al Gold
    • Emirates Gold
    • Etihad Gold
    • Hawaiian Airlines Gold
    • Hong Kong Airlines Gold
    • Iberia Oro
    • Lufthansa Senator
    • Qantas Gold
    • Qatar Gold
    • Scandinavian Airlines Gold
    • Singapore Silver
    • South African Airways Silver
    • Swiss Senator
    • Turkish Elite
    • United Airlines Premier Platinum
    • Virgin Australia Gold
  • Virgin Atlantic Gold Status – match from:
    • Air New Zealand Elite Plus
    • Alaska MVP MVP Gold 75k
    • American Airlines Executive Platinum
    • British Airways Gold
    • Cathay Pacific Platinum
    • El Al Platinum
    • Emirates Platinum
    • Etihad Platinum
    • Hawaiian Airlines Platinum
    • Hong Kong Airlines Platinum
    • Iberia Platino
    • Lufthansa Hon Circle
    • Qantas Platinum
    • Qatar Platinum
    • Scandinavian Airlines Diamond
    • Singapore Gold
    • South African Airways Gold & Platinum
    • Swiss Hon Circle
    • Turkish Elite Plus
    • United Airlines Premier 1k
    • Virgin Australia Platinum
• Direct link to offer.

Key Terms

• Become an Instant Gold member by proving you are in the top tier of one of the above airline loyalty schemes. You’ll also need to have a future revenue flight booked with Virgin Atlantic in either Premium Economy or Upper Class.
• Become and Instant Silver member by proving you are in the second tier of one of the above arline loyalty schemes. You’ll also need to have a future revenue flight booked with Virgin Atlantic in any cabin class.
• Proof of your other airline status must be given. Once received, the customer admin team will review and advise the details of what status they are eligible for.
• Your Flying Club Gold or Silver membership will be valid from 12 months from the date the account is upgraded.
• Gold members will need to earn 1,000 tier points in the membership period to retain Gold status.
• Silver members will need to earn 400 tier points in the membership period to retain Silver status.
• This offer cannot be transferred to any other traveler.

Quick Thoughts

The usefulness of this status match promotion will likely be limited for a couple of reasons. For starters, you have to have a revenue (i.e. not award) flight already booked with Virgin Atlantic. Secondly, the benefits you receive from Virgin Atlantic as a result of having status are similar to the benefits you receive when flying Upper Class; that means this status match will likely provide more value if you’re flying with them in Economy class.

That doesn’t mean status matching doesn’t have the potential to be useful though. As mentioned above, the benefits you receive could come in handy if you already have a revenue flight booked with Virgin Atlantic in Economy class. If you match to Silver status you’ll get benefits like Premium Check-In, Priority Boarding and Priority Baggage. If you can match to Gold status, you’ll also get a free exit row seat in Economy Classic, an extra piece of hand and checked luggage and Clubhouse access for you and a guest any time you fly with Virgin Atlantic or Delta, along with some other benefits.

It could also be worth taking advantage of this promotion as a way to potentially status match to other programs in the future. For example, if your American Airlines Executive Platinum or Platinum Pro status is due to expire at the end of March 2022, you could match that status to Virgin Atlantic to have elite status with at least one airline for 12 months from the date of matching. That’ll then hopefully provide the opportunity to match to yet another airline at some point next year to keep the status ball rolling.

Note that Virgin Atlantic Flying Club also allows you to status match automatically to Delta SkyMiles and Air France/KLM Flying Club. That seems to be a different setup, so I’m not sure if you need to have a revenue flight booked with Virgin Atlantic or if ‘automatically’ means the match is instant without any further requirements.

h/t OMAAT

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