Paid status match promotion has quickly become a popular trend. We talked about Kenya Airways recently, but Vietnam Airlines, which is also in Skyteam, was actually ahead of the curve.
The offer page is here. Vietnam Airlines has three elite tiers: Titanium, Gold and Platinum. Both Titanium and Gold map to Skyteam Elite, and Platinum is the only Elite Plus equivalent tier.
They accept many competing airline programs but the requirement is noticeably tougher than Kenya Airways: for Platinum you need either Star Gold or Oneworld Emerald. In other words Oneworld Sapphire or hotel elites won’t cut it.
What’s the point then? Vietnam Airlines recently launched a new service called Status Booster, which multiplies your status miles when flying Vietnam Airlines for the next 90 days.
- $99 – double miles
- $198 – triple miles
Sounds familiar? It’s almost identical to the offering from Royal Air Maroc.
You need 15,000 / 30,000 / 50,000 status miles to upgrade to Titanium / Gold / Platinum respectively. Here’s the regular earning chart of Vietnam Airlines.
You earn 150% on business class and 120% on premium economy (which is only available on domestic and inter-continental flights).
One sweet spot is between Seoul and Southeast Asia, where you earn more than 30,000 status miles in one return trip with the triple-point package.
Alternatively, a one-way business class flight from Seoul, Japan and Bali can sometimes be had for sub £1,000.
You’ll earn at least 35,000 status miles for the one-way trip. If the maths work out, a smart play could be: status match → buy Status Booster → requalify quickly for up to two years of SkyTeam Elite Plus.
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