✈️ How to match your expired status

Estimated read time: 4 minutes and 2 seconds

Good morning from the Cathay Pacific First-class lounge in Hong Kong!

I’m only flying in basic economy, but I am allowed to enter thanks to a status match to British Airways earlier this year. 😎

Oh, speaking of status matches… there’s an amazing one that just launched:

• ✈️ The best status match of the year

• ⚡️ Norse Atlantic Airways flash sale

• 🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

✈️ The best status match of the year

The latest status match just might be the best one we’ve seen this year…

For the next few weeks, you can match your elite status to ITA Airways (the Italian flag carrier), including your expired elite status!

Here’s the deal:

Depending on which airline you have elite status with, ITA Airways will match you to a corresponding level of their own status.

Specifically, you can match from airlines like British Airways and American Airlines, along with 17 others (see the list here).

Of course, the real benefit here is getting SkyTeam elite status.

If you have a high enough status with ITA, you’ll get benefits when you fly with any SkyTeam airline, including Delta, KLM, Air France, Korean Air, and many, many more.

And unlike the Flying Blue status match going on right now, this match is free of charge.

If approved, you’ll get status through the end of 2025, or almost a year and a half - which is AWESOME.

But the big kicker with this match is that you can use status as long as it expired no earlier than January of 2023.

This means that even if your status expired 18 months ago, you can use it to apply for this match.

Epic. Epic. Epic.

But here’s why this is so valuable…

If you get SkyTeam Elite Plus status from this match, you’ll be allowed to enter business and first-class lounges when flying with SkyTeam airlines, even in basic economy.

The other benefits like priority check-in, priority boarding, and more just sweeten the pot further.

If you did the British Airways status match from earlier this year, you can even use that temporary status to match to top-tier status with ITA.

That’s some serious status-match-ception right there.

If you want to do this, just follow these steps:

• Create an ITA Volare loyalty account

• In your account profile, click the “request status match” button

• Fill in your info and proof of status

• Make sure you submit the request before August 19th

It’s super easy.

There is one final thing to keep in mind…

Right now, ITA is a member of SkyTeam.

However, Lufthansa will be buying ITA before the end of the year and ITA will adopt Lufthansa’s loyalty program.

Of course, Lufthansa is a Star Alliance airline, and it remains unclear how this will affect your elite status.

But having half a year of SkyTeam status and half a year of Star Alliance status wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world either.

So here’s the bottom line:

This is by far the best way to get SkyTeam elite status for almost a year and a half - and even use expired status.

If you don’t have any status with SkyTeam airlines right now, I highly recommend you take advantage of this.

⚡️ Norse Atlantic Airways flash sale

If you didn’t know, Norse Atlantic is a low-cost carrier that serves a handful of cities in the U.S. with popular routes over to Europe (and even beyond).

And right now, they’ve launched a flash sale showcasing even cheaper-than-usual non-stop fares to Europe!

Here are the deets:

• You must book directly on Norse’s website by July 29th, 2024 (or until fares are “sold out”)

• Eligible travel dates include September 1st, 2024, to March 28th, 2025

The cheapest one-way fare I am finding is from New York to Berlin (and also London) for just $109! 👇

But there are a number of other routes for around $150 or less that’ll get you to Rome, Athens, Paris, and Oslo.

And keep in mind that this is a low cost carrier, so if you’re traveling with just a personal item and don’t mind keeping things basic, there’s no reason you’d need to pay additional fees.

But if you want an additional carry-on and a meal, you’ll need to fork over a little extra.

Overall, this is an easy straightforward deal with a wide travel window to a number of great European cities—and sometimes the best deals are the most simple 😎

🤓 Travel Trivia Tuesday

The correct answer is... Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)!

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is ranked as the most sleep-friendly airport in the United States thanks to its overabundance of lounges that are open day and night.

To determine the rankings, cpap.com analyzed factors like accessibility to massage chairs and lounges, minute suites, benches without armrests, free Wi-Fi, charging stations, and 24-hour food options.

On the other end of the spectrum, Canada’s Fort MacKay/Firebag Aerodrome (YFI) in Alberta and Bethel Airport (BET) in Bethel, Alaska, were deemed the least sleep-friendly airports, offering no restful amenities whatsoever.

Feeling inspired? Check out the full list of the most and least restful airports and start planning your next travel nap. 😴

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That’s all for today, friends!

I hope you enjoyed this Tuesday edition of Daily Drop, and I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow.

Cheers,

22.3135° N, 113.9137° E