AIRLINE STATUS MATCH AND WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?

Having a high level status with airline could be beneficial in many aspect. Also once you reach a high elite status in one airline you could use airline status match as one of the easy ways to acquire status benefits in different airline, partner or alliance. The benefits could vary from airline to airline but some of these benefits include:

• Bonus miles varying from 10% to 100% of your earned miles for revenue ticket.
• Lounge access even if you fly economy class with airline as well as in lot of cases partners and alliances (Star Alliance, One World, Sky Team). 
• Better seats selection such as Economy plus etc for no additional fees.
• Waived award ticket changes or cancellation fees.
• Complimentary upgrades to Business or First Class.

The biggest benefit of airline status match is you could leverage a high level status acquired on one airline to other airlines for various benefits. You could even extend the status beyond the usual 1 year by doing status match towards the end of the benefit year. The best part is you could used status on Airline-A to match with Airline-B. Once the match is approved you can turn around and match the status on Airline-B with Airline-C. These could very well extend you having Elite status for much more than initial 1 year. 

Some of the airlines will only match status during certain period and with certain airlines while others may choose to match status year around while yet some airlines will allow for "Status Challenge" rather then status match where you need to fly certain amount of miles with the airline in certain period of time to keep the status. Also most of the airlines which are part of one alliance might not status match with any of the airlines belonging to the same alliance. With that in mind listed below are various airlines that will match status. 

• Turkish Airlines (Star Alliance) - Will status match with other star alliance partners, One World alliance airlines, Sky Team airlines as well as other independent airlines. The status is good for 24 months from the month your status is approved.
• Gulf Air (No Alliance) - Will status match other Airlines.
• Air Berlin (One World) - Will status match Gulf Air, Lufthansa Airlines, United as well as Sky team airlines.
• Emirates (No Alliance) - Will typically match AA Executive Plat and United 1K but only up to their Silver elite status.
• Etihad Airways (Etihad Partner Alliance) - Runs promotion every 3 to 6 months to status match other alliance airlines. Does not match any of their alliance members though.
• Alaska Airlines (No Alliance) - Typically status matches United / American / Delta Airlines easily. Also matches to their highest level of status if you have highest level of status on one of the other airline.
• United / American - Provides Status Challenges which last for 3 months (You would have status for the 3 months period but it extends to entire 1 year only if you complete the challenge). Most of the time you need to have high level status as well as activity on the airline which you are using for status match.

Apart from above, some airlines will status match folks residing in specific country or region so as to get more business in those regions. As of this writing Etihad Airways and Qantas Airways (Only for New Zealand residents) are running status matches. You could look up this flyertalk thread or check this status matcher website to know about latest status matches which worked or failed.

---