Questions and Answers

Hi Lucky and everyone here, I was just researching a topic and found surprisingly no information online whatsoever on it. I thought you might have some thoughts or it may make for an interesting OMAT post.
Back in November 2018 CZ announced it would leave the skyteam alliance. I have seen literally no official update on this yet. My other question is what will happen to those SkyPearl members status on Skyteam? CZ website’s “Elite benefits” page has obviously not been updated and still mentions the standard Skyteam elite / elite plus benefits but what happens when they leave Skyteam? Does this mean their members (including, though they don’t seem to have that – any members with status for life) will lose all their Skyteam benefits? Will there be some agreement to “transfer” their status to another Skyteam airline? This seems like a critical question for someone trying to build status on their FFP and for example about to reach or maintain Gold (SKyteam Elite Plus) with CZ and wondering whether they should keep crediting miles to CZ or switch to another Skyteam carrier and possibly start all over again from 0???

I’d assume that all SkyTeam Elite & Elite Plus benefits went away as soon as they left the alliance, though benefits for being a CZ elite member when flying CZ will remain.

If you booked a ticket [I]before[/I] their announcement of leaving SkyTeam for travel after the membership ended, you can try to ask for some benefits though I doubt you will get very far.

It’s speculated that CZ may join oneworld, and if that happens, your CZ elite status will also be aligned with oneworld status.

For now, it’s a pretty big gray area of whether to stick with CZ and have no alliance benefits or to move to another airline and start from scratch. Your CZ elite status may allow you to status match with another airline though.