Unlike the British Airways status match offer I posted yesterday, Lufthansa actually requires a paid roundtrip flight taken by February 28 before granting status, and the flights must be on Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, LOT Polish, Brussels Airlines, Croatia, or Adria Airlines.
The very short application form (.pdf) needs to be completed and submitted along with a copy of your elite status card from a non-Star Alliance airline.
Status will be valid through February, 2011.
Lufthansa is another airline that doesn’t normally offer status matches, aside from the occasional offerings of a Star Alliance-wide matching program. So if you know anyone whose address you can borrow in Russia, Kazakhstan, or the Ukraine . . .
Lufthansa used to be in the ‘we don’t status match’ category, but last year ran promotions to FTL and SEN for residents of Italy, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Finland to name a few.
Last year, they didn’t include the usual upgrade vouchers than an ordinary SEN would receive.
Lufthansa has been offering status for 0, 1, or 2 flights to many European and near Europe countries for over a year. Details get posted in the Miles and More forum and sometimes also the forum of the home airline of the country(s) being targetted.
Gary, I have to admit I am a bit surprised by this and the previous status match “opportunity” posts.
A few months ago you posted that what you want from loyalty programs is “Honesty, Transparency, Integrity.” And that customers don’t want to be lied.
http://viewfromthewing.com/2009/10/28/what-customers-want-from-their-frequent-flyer-program/
And now you seem to basically be suggesting that your readers should pretend to live in a country they don’t actually live in, just to gain status in a program they otherwise wouldn’t have status in. In other words, lie and cheat to gain benefits from a loyalty program.
How does that jive with your earlier request for honesty and integrity? Surely you don’t mean that to be a one-way street?
This is actually pretty funny. Good luck getting any of your Lufthansa materials with the Russian Post Office.
To Jason:
A lot of times European companies (like Sixt) mail your materials to their office in Moscow. You have to pick them up in person.
@Oliver these are a little bit tongue-in-cheek.
I also think it’s pretty funny to limit folks to an offer if they live in Kazakhstan, when they have a global membership who by definition travels.
I haven’t taken advantage of either of these offers, we all have to deal with these questions for myself, I just hoped to let people ‘in on the joke’ though perhaps I was too subtle.
@Oliver
I’ve been to Kazakhstan once 🙂
It’s “Ukraine,” not “the Ukraine,” as the country is independent and no longer just a geographical region of a larger polity (the USSR). The only country names preceded by the definitive article in English are plural (the Netherlands, the United States) or adjectival/compound (the United Kingdom).