A couple of months back Gary posted about Etihad Guests offering 1,000 status matches. While it seems a lot of folks applied, no body heard back from Etihad for the longest time. As per this thread on FT, conspiracy theory went around about Etihad creating a huge marketing database and not keeping up to the ‘first’ 1,000 applicants in the list. Shoot me, but I support the theory because there is a lot more movement happening with people who apply, for instance, to the Turkish Airlines Star Alliance Gold status match ongoing at present. Status Matches are commercial decisions for airlines, however, when the marketing material speaks of the first 1,000 then clearly it took them a lot longer to wade through the data and say who should get that status match.
However, it seems like the results of this tough exam are out and finally some people have been offered status matches on Etihad Guest to Gold. So, if you were one of the applicants, do check out if you cleared the exam or not!
Me, I did not, so I guess I will stick with Emirates and Jet Airways for the Middle-East travel for the time being 😉
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I got my Gold status but no communication from Etihad about it, which is odd… And I didn’t send in copies of my card as I was on the road as the deadline approached and didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting elite cards scanned. They matched anyway.
I’ll use it because mere premium cabin travel is no longer enough for free limo transfers at AUH during stopovers. 🙂