22
Jan
As part of a review of my frequent flyer strategy for the year ahead I have been thinking about lifetime elite status. If one year of elite frequent flyer status is good then a lifetime is better – travel can be focussed on purposes other than requalification of elite status.
As the term suggests, lifetime elite status gives status benefits for the rest of your life, or the life of the frequent flyer program, whichever ends first. In respect of alliance benefits there is an additional caveat that the host airline remains in the airline alliance.
In 2007 I achieved lifetime Oneworld Sapphire status through Qantas Frequent Flyer. I was also well on the way towards lifetime Star Alliance gold status through Singapore Airlines before they pulled the plug by grandfathering existing lifetime PPS Solitaire members and stopping any new qualification of the status. Since then I haven’t paid too much attention to lifetime statuses, since most of the programs I use either do not have lifetime elite status, or have a long time period qualification (in one case decades for me).
The last couple of years my travel patterns have changed markedly, and as I continue to seek out more difficult to reach places they will keep changing for the foreseeable future. Thus, removing the requalification hassle will be welcome. I haven’t yet finalised my approach but in the meantime, here are some lifetime elite airline statuses that are available together with their requirements.
Lifetime status earned by a period of time with high status
Air France/KLM – 10 years platinum for lifetime platinum (Sky Team elite+)
bmi – 10 years gold for lifetime gold (Star Alliance gold)
Spanair – 10 years gold for lifetime gold (Star Alliance gold)
Lifetime status earned by a period of time with high status and minimum status mileage
Lufthansa – 10 years senator/HON circle at or above age 60, and 1 million status miles for lifetime senator (Star Alliance gold)
SAS – 10 years gold at or above age 60 for lifetime gold (Star Alliance gold)
South African – 6 years of platinum earned by flying 100,000 miles per year on South African or by the requisite tier points (only South African flights count) for lifetime platinum (Star Alliance gold)
Lifetime status earned by lifetime status mileage (restricted)
Air Canada – 1 million status miles on Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz for lifetime elite (Star Alliance gold)
Air Canada – 2 million status miles on Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz for lifetime elite for yourself and a nominated partner (Star Alliance gold)
Air Canada – 3 million status miles on Air Canada and Air Canada Jazz for lifetime super elite for yourself and lifetime elite for a nominated partner (Star Alliance gold)
Air China – 1 million status miles on Air China for lifetime platinum (Star Alliance gold)
Alaska – 1 million status miles on Alaska and Horizon for lifetime gold
Asiana – 1000 flights on Asiana for lifetime platinum (Star Alliance gold)
EgyptAir – 1 million status miles on EgyptAir for lifetime platinum (Star Alliance gold)
Philippine – 1 million status miles on Philippine for million miler
United – 1 million status miles on Continental & United for lifetime premier gold (Star Alliance gold) for self and from 1 January 2012 annual premier gold for nominated partner
United – 2 million status miles on Continental & United for lifetime premier platinum (Star Alliance gold) and from 1 January 2012 annual premier platinum for partner (up until 31 December 2011 also lifetime Red Carpet Club membership for self)
United – 3 million status miles on Continental & United for lifetime premier 1K (Star Alliance gold) and from 1 January 2012 annual premier 1K for partner
United – 4 million status miles on Continental & United for lifetime global services (Star Alliance gold) and annual global services for partner, both from 1 January 2012
US Airways – 1 million status miles on US Airways for lifetime Silver Preferred* (Star Alliance silver)
* requires account to remain active to maintain the status, ie activity at least every 3 years.
Lifetime status earned by lifetime status mileage (unrestricted)
American – 1 million status miles for lifetime gold (Oneworld ruby) – from 1 December 2011
American – 2 million status miles for lifetime platinum (Oneworld sapphire) - from 1 December 2011
Asiana – 500,000 status miles (or 500 qualifying flights on Asiana) for lifetime diamond plus (Star Alliance gold)
Asiana – 1 million status miles for lifetime platinum (Star Alliance gold)
Continental – 1 million status miles for lifetime silver (Star Alliance silver)
Continental – 2 million status miles for lifetime gold (Star Alliance gold)
Continental – 4 million status miles for lifetime platinum (Star Alliance gold)
Delta – 1 million status miles for lifetime silver (Sky Team elite)
Delta – 2 million status miles for lifetime gold (Sky Team elite+)
Delta – 4 million status miles for lifetime platinum (Sky Team elite+)
Korean – 500,000 status miles for morning calm premium club (Sky Team elite+)
Korean – 1 million status miles for million miler club (Sky Team elite+)
Qantas – 7,000 status credits for lifetime silver (Oneworld ruby)
Qantas – 14,000 status credits for lifetime gold (Oneworld sapphire)
Lifetime status earned by lifetime mileage (any source)
American – 1 million miles for lifetime gold (Oneworld ruby) – until 30 November 2011
American – 2 million miles for lifetime platinum (Oneworld sapphire) – until 30 November 2011
Comments
Sky Team appears to be the easiest to earn lifetime top tier status. For me that isn’t much help as I very rarely fly Sky Team airlines.
Star Alliance has a number of options for lifetime top alliance tier status. Easiest would have been bmi, if you’ve already had bmi gold status. The expected merge into Lufthansa Miles & More within the next year scuppers hopes of lifetime status for most people. For someone starting now Asiana may be easiest except for those who predominantly fly United.
Oneworld has no lifetime top tier status. Lifetime middle tier status is most easily earnt with American since all mileage counts.
In all cases lifetime status requires a significant commitment and a lot of flying (except for American). So an important consideration is whether or not the lifetime status benefit will still be available for long enough to earn it, and whether the requirements may go up significantly in the meantime.
Something for me to think about.
Musings of the Global Traveller
Thoughts, advice and travel news from around the world by a seasoned frequent flyer.
Rambuster said,
Lufthhansa lifetime SEN isn't a published benefit. This something the airline can award but it is at their descetion. The criteria is 1 million status miles in the 10 years prior to reaching the age of 60 with continuous SEN/HON status in that time.
Sky team flyer said,
Sky team lifetime status is not the easier to obtain. 4 Million miles to get lifetime platinum is base miles only and not accrued miles. In Accrued miles language, that is more like 8 million miles. Also note that the highest status on sky team is Diamond while does not offer a life time status at the moment.
Air Canada introduces lifetime elite status - Musings of The Global Traveller said,
[...] post summarising all the lifetime elite statuses has been updated. The new Aeroplan lifetime status levels are relatively difficult to earn (there [...]
US Airways adds lifetime status benefit - Musings of The Global Traveller said,
[...] on US Airways flights. This is not a particularly good lifetime status benefit (see the updated all airline lifetime elite status summary to see why). Even worse, the benefit is not truly a lifetime benefit in that US Airways will [...]
Upgrades and Downgrades: Security pancakes, Australian alliance, lifetime status, & Chavez time | Vacation Trends said,
[...] Upgraded, barely: US Airways lifetime status US Airways has joined its peers and rolled out a lifetime elite level. One-million miles flown on US Airways flights yields only lowest-tier status, with Star Silver status attached. And it’s not even for life — you have to maintain activity at least every three years to retain the status. Pfft. Other airlines offer a much better deal. (Especially AA, among the US-based airlines, which counts all earned miles, and not just flown miles, when calculating million-miler status.) For a nice rundown of the various airlines’ million-miler options, see the Global Traveller’s breakdown. [...]
Lifetime D+ (*G) for 500K - FlyerTalk Forums said,
[...] for the info. I've added to the lifetime elite airline status post __________________ Blogs~FT~travel~NZ->NZ/Oz cheap fares||Info~HowToGetTo~flightmemory Trip [...]
*G on AirNZ, thinking of switching to Asiana - FlyerTalk Forums said,
[...] some other *A carriers – Asiana is just the easiest to get to *G). By the way for those interested here's a link to KiwiFlyer's summary of Lifetime status FF [...]
lifetime star gold - FlyerTalk Forums said,
[...] for all lifetime elite statuses offered by major FFPs are listed in the link. __________________ Blogs~FT~travel~NZ->NZ/Oz [...]
Lifetime elite status with American not quite so easy from December 2011 - Musings of The Global Traveller said,
[...] I’ve updated the full listing of lifetime elite frequent flyer status. [...]
NYBanker said,
UA has just said that 4mm will get lifetime gs status.
The Global Traveller said,
Thanks @NYBanker
I’ve added some details for the other changes to United’s lifetime status benefits.
NYBanker said,
DL’s GM, the 2mm lifetime status threshold, is now also ST Elite +
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