Royal Jordanian, a oneworld member airline, has a lucrative status match opportunity, which could be a great way to get oneworld Sapphire benefits. While this promotion has been live for some time, there’s now an update, as Royal Jordanian has expanded this to also match status from hotels, and not just airlines.
I don’t want to bury the lede, though — this has geographic restrictions, and it’s not open to those in the United States.
In this post:
Basics of Royal Jordanian’s status match promo
The website statusmatch.com is partnering with Royal Jordanian’s Royal Club program to offer a status match promotion. Royal Jordanian is a oneworld member, and this could be valuable even if you don’t typically fly with the airline. A few basics to be aware of, to start:
- Royal Jordanian is matching to Silver Jay status (oneworld Ruby) at a cost of $49, or to Gold Sparrow status (oneworld Sapphire) at a cost of $149
- The status match request should take just a minute to complete, though it can take up to five business days for the request to be approved
- There’s no published end date for this promotion, though it can be pulled at any time
- Matched status is valid for a period of 12 months from when the match is approved
- This promotion is only valid for those who reside in the following countries (and you must have ID documents, like a passport or driver’s license): Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, England, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Syria, Turkey, and UAE
Which status is Royal Jordanian matching?
According to the FAQs, Royal Jordanian is matching status from both airlines and hotels (originally this offer was just for airline status matches). Specifically, Royal Jordanian is matching the following airline status:
- Air Europa – SUMA
- Air France – Flying Blue
- EgyptAir – Plus
- El Al – Matmid
- Emirates – Skywards
- Etihad – Guest
- Gulf Air – Falcon Flyer
- Kuwait Airways – Oasis Club
- Lufthansa – Miles & More
- Middle East Airlines – Cedar Miles
- Oman Air – Sindbad
- Saudia – Alfursan
- Scandinavian Airlines – EuroBonus
- TAP Air Portugal – Miles&Go
- Turkish Airlines – Miles&Smiles
- Virgin Atlantic – Flying Club
As you can see, this includes many non-oneworld airlines, in particular airlines in Europe and the Middle East, which are markets in which Royal Jordanian competes most. On top of that, Royal Jordanian is also matching the following hotel status:
- Accor – ALL
- GHA – Discovery
- Hilton – Honors
- Hyatt – World of Hyatt
- IHG – One Rewards
- Langham Hotels – Brilliant
- Marriott – Bonvoy
- Melia – Melia Rewards
- Preferred Hotel Group – Prefer Hotel Rewards
- Radisson – Radisson Rewards
- Shangri-La – Golden Circle
- Wyndham – Wyndham Rewards
Why is this status match opportunity useful?
Obviously this promotion could be useful if you’re someone who has a lot of travel on Royal Jordanian coming up. Beyond that, though, the main reason to consider this promotion is because of the value of oneworld Sapphire status. This status offers perks like priority boarding, priority check-in, and extra baggage allowance, on all oneworld airlines.
If you have oneworld Sapphire status with a non-US frequent flyer program, you could even access American Admirals Clubs or American Flagship Lounges whenever traveling on a oneworld airline, even if you’re traveling domestically.
American AAdvantage and Alaska Mileage Plan elite members only get lounge access on select international itineraries, while oneworld Sapphire members with foreign airlines get lounge access even on entirely domestic itineraries. Getting access to American’s premium lounges even when traveling domestically is awesome.
However, admittedly this is of limited use with this offer, given that this deal isn’t available to those residing in the United States.
Bottom line
There’s a status match promotion for Royal Jordanian Royal Club status, which can earn you oneworld Sapphire perks. There’s an application fee of up to $149, but that’s not a lot at all when you consider the potential value of this promotion.
If you’re a oneworld flyer and are eligible, I’d highly recommend taking advantage of this. The major catch, of course, is that there are residency requirements, so this isn’t open to those in the United States.
Do you plan on taking advantage of this oneworld status match opportunity?
An expat here in Saudi Arabia, my hilton diamond match by RJ only shows the option of Royal Club Silver JAY ath the cost of $49.
Question: can you use the RJ status to enter the AA lounge and still credit the flight mileage to AA
I mean I guess it could be technically possible? I can't say with certainty whether this is within the ticket's/lotalty program ToS, but theoretically you may be able to book the flight with reference to your RJ status, then check-in and enter the lounge with RJ status still attached to the ticket and upon exiting the lounge you could try to go up to a counter (lounge dragon seems a bit shameless, but maybe at...
I mean I guess it could be technically possible? I can't say with certainty whether this is within the ticket's/lotalty program ToS, but theoretically you may be able to book the flight with reference to your RJ status, then check-in and enter the lounge with RJ status still attached to the ticket and upon exiting the lounge you could try to go up to a counter (lounge dragon seems a bit shameless, but maybe at the gate/service desk?) to change the ticket's referenced status to your AA one.
Again, I don't know if this is even feasible in the first place (as I've never tried it) and if it is, it may not necessarily be within ToS... so it's very much a ymmv situation
Does anyone know if the benefits from oneworld sapphire status through RJ would apply on an AA basic economy tickets? I know AAdvantage perks still apply in basic economy, but I haven't found anything about status from partners.
I got the status matched (Golden Sparrow = OneWorld Sapphire, thanks to my Flying Blue Gold status) but the RJ digital card is not actually downloadable in the Apple Wallet, even if the RJ App seems to offer the possibility. I wrote to their customer service and at first they did not know what I was talking about. Eventually they admitted that RJ does not offer this service yet.
Has anyone received their ITA match yet?
I received confirmation this past weekend.
It was about a two-week wait from when I submitted my match request.
“To be eligible, the status holder must also live or reside in the listed countries and hold ID documents such as a passport or driver's license for the eligible country.
“Eligible countries that are subject to change are: Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, UAE and UK.”
That’s from the RJ portal side of statusmatch.com
So no requirement...
“To be eligible, the status holder must also live or reside in the listed countries and hold ID documents such as a passport or driver's license for the eligible country.
“Eligible countries that are subject to change are: Austria, Bahrain, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Netherlands, Oman, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey, UAE and UK.”
That’s from the RJ portal side of statusmatch.com
So no requirement to be a citizen of those countries. Just need to have some kind of indicated proof of being resident there that ends up as accepted by the processing agent.
A US dual-citizen of Germany ordinarily resident in the US with a German passport can pretty easily meet the eligibility for this paid status match by having the accounts listed at a German mailing address.
I have 10 listed programs that work to get me RJ status, but I am already set with enough elite status with Oneworld airlines.
It’s a cheap way to get lounge access when flying American Airlines and Alaska Airlines domestically. Cheaper than even getting Admirals Club access from the high-priced Citibank AA credit card.
A bit weird that RJ accepting El Al matmid status for match, but its not available to citizens of Israel and the US which are probably 99% of LY's status holders.
The UK, France and Germany seemed to have quite a lot of LY status members at least 10-15 years ago. Not as many as Israel and the US, but definitely a bunch.
They care about country of citizenship when processing the applications? I thought they cared about the country of indicated residential address for the relevant account(s).
I think you meant to say that the status match is available to people from UK, not just England.
On the RJ site it does reflect as UK... not sure if they updated it while Ben was editing the article or if there was a typo.
Wasn’t there some kind of info going about yesterday about a cheap way to go from no status to Lufthansa Senator status for under €400 and do that even without flying? Think the advertised cost was actually around €320 to do that.