Overview of lifetime airline status tiers & requirements

[MG1]

With Asiana about to depart Star, there are no other programs that count alliance partner flights towards LT status in Star, unlike OW or ST.

What about SA?
(I posted a question earlier about his.)

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

What about SA?
(I posted a question earlier about his.)

Fair point, but from my reading on the SAA Voyager rules, that requires 6 consecutive years at Platinum (at least 95,000 miles per year each year for at least 570,000 miles in total over six years) or at least 720,000 miles in four years. That is a LOT of flying - it's taken me over a decade to fly that many miles on all carriers from any alliance, concentrating that on Star carriers within 6 or 4 years would be an epic achievement!

 

[PeterPanPan]

Also @MG1, from my reading of the article, SA don't recognise Partner flights. So flights on SQ (as I plan) would not help.

 

[bPeteb]

Now that I've hit middle age, I feel like I've finally achieved Life Time Old status...

you poor 'old' thing

 

[Kiwi_Flyer]

I have Qantas lifetime platinum, Asiana platinum, Korean morning calm premium club. My *A backup for when Asiana exits is many banked years Air NZ elite (not yet enough to consider it lifetime status but 16 is a good start).

I was also well on the way to Singapore lifetime PPS (about 12 months of flying short) when that got pulled.

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

I was also well on the way to Singapore lifetime PPS (about 12 months of flying short) when that got pulled.

What were the criteria for lifetime PPS?

 

[RB001]

What were the criteria for lifetime PPS?

Quite reasonable (YMMV, literally)

Only 1,875,000 miles or 1,000 PPS sectors.

 

[MG1]

Fair point, but from my reading on the SAA Voyager rules, that requires 6 consecutive years at Platinum (at least 95,000 miles per year each year for at least 570,000 miles in total over six years) or at least 720,000 miles in four years. That is a LOT of flying - it's taken me over a decade to fly that many miles on all carriers from any alliance, concentrating that on Star carriers within 6 or 4 years would be an epic achievement!

Agreed.

Also @MG1, from my reading of the article, SA don't recognise Partner flights. So flights on SQ (as I plan) would not help.

That's a pain - I thought that they did. Scrap that then.

 

[Chrizztofa]

For my travel patterns, I've found the zone/continent-based model of calculating status credits / tier points to be easier to obtain status compared to the distance or spend-based models which apply a multiplier to the actual distance flown or amount spent.

With BA and VA moving to spend-based models, are there any airlines other than QF that still primarily use a zone-based model?

IB seem to use it for partner flights (but not sure if you need to earn a minimum on IB to qualify for status in the first place), as does VA (although its usefulness for lifetime status going forward is limited given you need to earn 9,000 SCs via spend on VA-coded flights).

 

[LionKing]

It seems Star Alliance is the alliance where it is hardest to get Lifetime Status with for an Australian traveller, unless one day where Air NZ or Virgin Australia joins Star.
Meanwhile, SkyTeam must be the easiest. Just pay ~A$100K and SkyTeam Elite Plus is yours for life. No flying required.
And you can have Qantas lounge Access with that too.
Try China Eastern, pay CNY 490K deposit, and maintain a balance of 300K and SkyTeam Elite Plus + Qantas Gold equivalent is yours for life.

 

[clifford]

It seems Star Alliance is the alliance where it is hardest to get Lifetime Status with for an Australian traveller, unless one day where Air NZ or Virgin Australia joins Star.

I was under the impression that NZ was an established Star Alliance member. Perhaps I was mistaken.

However, I achieved lifetime *G through United Mileage Plus, racking up over 2,500,00 paid miles. Flying was fun then (pre 7/11). Not so much now (but it can still have its highlights).

 

[Kiwi_Flyer]

Air NZ is in *A but has no lifetime status.

They do provide banked years, so if you fly enough as Elite status you can extend your status by 2 years each year. Not as good as lifetime but better than nothing.

 

[SYD]

However, I achieved lifetime *G through United Mileage Plus, racking up over 2,500,00 paid miles. Flying was fun then (pre 7/11). Not so much now (but it can still have its highlights).

Alas, due to some Newbie mistakes (preferring to fly NZ J v UA metal transpac back in the naughties post the AN collapse), I’m now about as close to UA 1m miles as I am to VA never Gold….despite accruing a shed load of miles on both…

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

It seems Star Alliance is the alliance where it is hardest to get Lifetime Status with for an Australian traveller, unless one day where Air NZ or Virgin Australia joins Star.
Meanwhile, SkyTeam must be the easiest. Just pay ~A$100K and SkyTeam Elite Plus is yours for life. No flying required.
And you can have Qantas lounge Access with that too.
Try China Eastern, pay CNY 490K deposit, and maintain a balance of 300K and SkyTeam Elite Plus + Qantas Gold equivalent is yours for life.

Do you have a link for this China Eastern option? I'm heading to MM on Delta but this sounds intriguing...

 

[LionKing]

Hi Supersonic Swinger,
I can find the link here, however it is not available in English:

https://www.ceair.com/global/static/Announcement/AnnouncementMessage/chinaeasternnewstest/202504/t20250423_28062.html

 

[Supersonic Swinger]

Hi Supersonic Swinger,
I can find the link here, however it is not available in English:

https://www.ceair.com/global/static/Announcement/AnnouncementMessage/chinaeasternnewstest/202504/t20250423_28062.html

Wowzah, I'll have to take your word for it! My Mandarin knowledge is zilch.