Losing Your Airline Status Next Year? Here’s What You Can Do

With the end of the year fast approaching, many travelers are confronting the unfortunate reality that they’ll soon be boarding last with the rest of us: While it’s not technically too late to earn airline elite status for next year, time is quickly winding down with most major airlines. 

If it looks like you’ll fail to renew your elite status, there are some things you can (and should) do now to ensure your fall from the top is a gracious one. 

First – and most importantly – do a little self-reflection and figure out why you didn’t re-qualify … and if it really matters. Are you spending less on your flights? Maybe you can bridge the gap with a co-branded airline credit card. Are you flying other airlines more? Maybe a promotion to match your soon-to-expire status with another carrier is the right move. Did you have a big life event that put travel on hold? Maybe your favorite airline will extend your status automatically.

The point is: Even though time has (almost) run out on earning status, you’ve still got a chance to make it a soft landing. Here’s what you need to do. 

Add a Co-Branded Credit Card Instead

Let me ask you this: What are your favorite benefits of elite status?

If you’re a current Delta Medallion member, we know it’s not upgrades – Delta does everything it can to sell those seats so that it doesn’t have to give them away to elites for free. On other airlines, the upgrade situation isn’t much better, either.

But if the best part of having airline status is early boarding, free checked baggage, and a few other fringe perks, you might be able to get a similar set of benefits just by holding a co-branded airline card. Each of the big three U.S. airlines offer credit cards with perks like free checked bags and earlier boarding.

You may even be able to instantly bridge the status gap by adding the right card: Both the *delta platinum* and *delta reserve* include an annual 2,500 MQD Headstart benefit. So if you’re 2,500 Medallion Qualifying Dollars (MDQs) or less shy of re-qualifying for status, adding one of these cards now could be just the ticket.

And since both cards include this benefit, you can add one now – even if you already have the other. So long as you get approved for one of these cards before the end of the year, your 2,500 MQDs will be backdated to 2024.

If you’re really close, swiping your top airline credit cards could help you close the gap before the year comes to a close:

• The Delta SkyMiles Platinum and Reserve cards earn 1 MQD for every $20 and $10 you spend, respectively. So if you spent $2,000 on your Reserve Card before the year is over, you could earn $200 MQDs.
• No matter which American Airlines co-branded card you have, you’ll earn 1 Loyalty Point for every dollar you spend. But because American Airlines status qualification year resets March 1, you’ve got an extra two months – all the way until Feb. 28 – to re-qualify for AAdvantage status.
• And through the end of the year, all the United cards (except the no-annual-fee Gateway Card) earn 25 Premier Qualifying Points (PQP) for every $500 you spend. But exactly how many PQPs total you can earn is capped depending on which card you have, from up to 10,000 PQPs a year on the top-tier *united club infinite* to just 1,000 PQPs a year on the *united explorer*.

Once the calendar turns to 2025, United cards will be even more powerful as the airline reworks its status requirements. The *united club infinite* will award 1 PQP for every $15 you spend – and with the *united explorer* and the *united quest*, you’ll earn 1 PQP per $20 spent. The annual caps are raising on those cards next year too, aside from the United Explorer Card.

Status Match … & Then Match Again

Every airline knows just how valuable their elite elites are – and in the cutthroat airline industry, they’re willing to do anything they can to steal a competitor’s most loyal customers. That’s where status matches come in.

Most airlines offer a way for travelers to match their current status with another carrier to a similar tier on a trial basis (generally three to six months) to entice them to trade teams. If you meet certain criteria, like flying a specified number of segments or spending a certain amount of money, you can extend that status and generally keep it for the remainder of the year.

These matches are great for anyone losing status because even though you might not actually plan to switch your loyalty, it can be a great way to try out a different airline – and maybe even regain your preferred status … in a roundabout way. Here’s an example of how it works.

Say you’re currently a Delta Platinum Medallion but Delta’s unpopular overhaul of elite status for this year means you’ll drop to a Silver Medallion for 2025. You can take your current Platinum Medallion status and match it to United’s Premier Platinum status for 120 days. And if you meet some additional requirements during that 120-day span – flying 12 Premier qualifying flights (PQFs) and earn 4,000 Premier qualifying points (PQPs) – you can retain that status for the rest of the year.

But here’s where things get interesting. If you don’t really want United Premier status, you may be able to use it to match to another SkyTeam airline … and regain some of your beloved perks from Delta status. Fellow SkyTeam airlines like Air France and KLM won’t allow you to match your status from another SkyTeam airline – but you can use an intermediary like United to make it happen. 

With United Gold Status or higher, you could match to Air France/KLM Flying Blue Gold – though you’d have to pay a fee of $299. But that could unlock 12 months of status with the European airlines plus SkyTeam Elite Status, with perks like priority check-in, security, boarding; extra baggage allowance; and lounge access when flying Air France, KLM, or even Delta.

Of course, your Flying Blue elite status will be short-lived, unless you meet lofty flying criteria to keep it. But these status matches can be a backdoor way to keep and regain elite benefits. 

Long story short: If you’re about to lose your elite status you should match to a competing airline before it’s too late! 

Beg for Mercy (or Pay Up)

While we’ve long advised against chasing elite status, there’s no doubt it can be nice. Even with upgrades getting harder and harder to come by, other perks can easily make it worthwhile.

If all else fails and it looks like you’re going to miss out on status for next year, it might not hurt to ask for an extension.

For example, Delta publicly offers a “Reclaim My Status” feature that allows Medallion members to submit a request for a status extension and an accelerated path to re-qualifying – similar to a status match. In order to qualify, you’ll need to prove that some sort of big life event impacted your normal travel patterns the previous year. This could be the birth of a child, a medical issue, job change, or even going back to school. 

Neither American Airlines or United Airlines publicly offer a perk like Delta’s Reclaim My Status, but both have unofficially granted status extensions to elite members who can prove a life event kept them from re-qualifying on their own. If you’re about to lose status with one of these airlines, it would be wise to call up the elite line and plead your case.

Finally, if you’re an American Airlines AAdvantage elite at risk of losing status, it might not hurt to keep an eye on your email inbox. Year after year, American Airlines emails elites who haven’t yet re-qualified for status offering them the opportunity to “secure AAdvantage status” for the coming year. 

As a lowly Gold elite last year, I got no less than a dozen emails from AA offering me the opportunity to lock in my status for the low, low price (do you detect the sarcasm?) of $700. 

Even after I passed on AA’s “limited-time” offer and my status expired, I kept getting emails into June offering me the chance to buy it back. Given the travel that I had planned for 2024, renewing my AAdvantage status didn’t make sense. But for some, it could be worthwhile.

Bottom Line

From status matches to co-branded credit cards, and even a couple of last-ditch tricks to help you get over the finish line, now is the time to prepare for life without airline elite status.

Hopefully, your fall from the top of the elite ranks will be a gentle one.