✈️ Two awesome status matches

Estimated read time: 3 minutes and 37 seconds

Good morning from the United Polaris lounge at SFO airport (it’s a long story...).

Anyway, I’ve got a deal for you…

How about I give you tips on how to get easy elite status with both an airline AND hotel program, and you give me absolutely nothing?

Sound like a fair deal? Good:

• 🏨 Hilton Status challenge

• ✈️ Flying Blue Status match

• ✅ TSA PreCheck and Clear buddy up

🏨 Hilton Status challenge

Mmmmmmmmmmm… status matches… they’re simply the best, eh?

What’s better than working hard (or not so hard) to earn elite status and then multiplying that status for free?

That’s exactly what Hilton is currently offering, which might be valuable for some of you.

Here’s how this works:

If you register for Hilton’s status match, you’ll be given 90 days of Gold elite status.

This is already sounding pretty good…

But if you stay a certain number of nights during those 90 days, you’ll get to retain that status or even upgrade it:

• Stay eight nights to retain Gold status

• Stay 14 nights to get Diamond status

If you complete either of those requirements, you’ll have that status through March 31st of 2026… folks… that’s almost two years of potential Diamond status.

This is a steal, considering Diamond status normally requires you to spend 60 nights a year at Hilton hotels, and you can get it for almost two years by staying just 14 nights with this match…

Even Gold status is pretty good since it gets you free breakfast (or food voucher) on all stays.

Of course, you’ll need status in another hotel program in order to be eligible:

So even if you have the [[ ihg-rewards-premier-credit-card.name ]] like I do (which comes with IHG Platinum status), you’d be able to take advantage of it and turn it into another free status.

Overall, this is a great offer.

If you have Hilton stays coming up, I’d wait to register for this until the date of your first stay approaches so you can really maximize that 90-day window.

Check it out and apply for the challenge on this website.

✈️ Flying Blue Status match

Hotels are cool and all, but airlines are where the real meat of miles and points lies.

Now I have good news and bad news about this section…

The good news is that you can match your airline elite status to Flying Blue elite status.

The bad news?

It’s only available to residents of 18 countries, including Canada… but not including the U.S…. 😬😬😬

But since this is such a good opportunity for Canadians, Brits, and a number of other European residents, I want to tell you about it.

Here’s how it works:

If you have elite status with an airline program, you can pay a fee and get Flying Blue status for a full 12 months.

The list of airlines and corresponding statuses is huge and includes many popular programs (see the full list here).

Now, if you want to take them up on this deal, you’ll need to pay a fee, depending on which level of status you match to:

• 🇨🇦 Canadian residents:

  • 79 CAD for Silver status

  • 199 CAD for Gold status

  • 399 CAD for Platinum status

• 🇬🇧 United Kingdom residents:

  • €79 for Silver status

  • €199 for Gold status

  • €399 for Platinum status

• 🇪🇺 Other European countries:

  • €59 for silver status

  • €199 for Gold status

  • €399 for Platinum status

Obviously, the Canadians win here (which is rare for us, so please just let us have this moment).

399 Canadian dollars is roughly €270… so for a Platinum-level match, we’re getting it for way cheaper than the Europeans.

Personally, I have Aeroplan 75k status, so I’d be able to pay that fee and match to Platinum status, which comes with some nice benefits:

Since this status comes with SkyTeam perks, I will reap the benefits of status when flying airlines like Delta, Korean Air, Aeromexico, Garuda Indonesia, and more.

Skipping lines at the airport, getting business lounge access, and waived change/cancellation fees sounds pretty good to me…

Anyway, this match is being offered in partnership with a company called StatusMatch, and you can check it out and apply on this website.

✅ TSA PreCheck and Clear buddy up

Two somewhat competitive airport security programs have decided to… partner up? I guess?

The TSA has just announced that you can now register for TSA PreCheck through CLEAR, both online or through their enrolment centers.

To sweeten the pot, they’re even offering a bundle deal to save some cash when registering for both programs.

Generally, it would cost $267 to register for both programs.

With the bundle deal, you’ll pay just $200… which is not a half-bad deal.

Of course, one of the nice perks of having a premium credit card is that many cards offer credits for programs like TSA PreCheck, Clear, and Global Entry, including:

• All of these cards offer TSA PreCheck credits

• All of these cards offer CLEAR credits

But I think the question on all of our minds…

Do you really need both of these memberships?

The answer is:

Maybe.

If they’re both free (from having a credit card that offers credits for them), then why the heck not? 🤷🏼‍♂️

If you want a refresher on what these two programs are, how they’re different, and whether or not you might want them both, check out our guide to CLEAR and our guide to TSA PreCheck.

Well, that’s all I’ve got on this totally normal, totally not special day.

It’s definitely the last time you’ll hear from me today. I mean it. Nothing else is happening today…

😉

Love you ❤️

37.6193° N, 122.3816° W