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It looks like this has already ended!
China Southern is currently offering a status match. China Southern is a member of SkyTeam, so Elite status would give you benefits across the whole Alliance. This is great news since the Alliance has some great carriers including Delta, KLM, Air France, and Korean Air. Depending on your status you can enjoy various benefits from Lounge access to Priority Boarding.
China Southern Elite Levels
China Southern’s frequent flyer program, the Skypearl Club, has three membership levels: Skypearl Basic, Skypearl Silver, and Skypearl Gold.
The levels equate to the following SkyTeam levels:
| China Southern | SkyPearl Basic | SkyPearl Silver | SkyPearl Gold |
| SkyTeam | N/A | SkyTeam Elite | SkyTeam Elite Plus |
Sky Pearl Gold is the top status and comes with a host of benefits across the Alliance.
How to Status Match
Before you begin the process of status matching with China Southern Sky Pearl, you need to figure out what status you will be eligible to receive. The following are the various equivalencies:
| Sky Pearl Silver | Sky Pearl Gold |
|---|---|
| Any Star Alliance Silver (e.g. United Premier Silver etc.) | Any Star Alliance Gold (e.g. EGYPTAIR Plus Gold, United Premier Gold and above, etc.) |
| Any Oneworld Ruby (e.g. BA bronze, AA Gold etc.) | Any Oneworld Sapphire/Emerald (e.g. BA Gold/Silver, AA Platinum/Pro/Executive Platinum, etc.) |
To status match you will have to contact China Southern directly via email at czmarketing@csair.us, they will email you an application form, which you need to fill out and email back with your credentials. Including your latest statement, and an image of your card, which can be a virtual card or a physical one. Once you have supplied all the necessary information, you should receive an email from China Southern informing you that they will get back to you in 3-5 days with a decision. If you are successful then expect to receive your card within a month.
A Word of Caution
Currently, China Southern states that this status match offer is designed for “invited customers”, so whether China Southern will blanket match statuses is unknown, but be prepared for them to scrutinize your travel patterns and look to see if it is beneficial for them to status match you.
Overall
It is always great when a status match is on, leveraging one Elite status to gain another is always a bonus. Even though China Southern states this is for invited customers, it is well worth your while taking the few minutes needed to sign up for the status match, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. However, I would register quickly since there is no end date for this promotion and it is possible that China Southern could pull the promotion, especially if they get an avalanche of applications.
Source: Canadian Kilometers
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I flew from Beijing-Guangzhou-New York recently with China Southern Air business class this week and had good experience. Summary points below:
Beijing to Guangzhou
+They had separate ‘VIP’ check in section for business class with no lines (lots of sofas to wait around), far away from normal check in corner
+ Larger than usual business cube seats (or felt like) considering it was a domestic flight
– Their lounge was pretty basic, no shower
– Flight was delayed on weather issues (which seemed odd since I didn’t notice much outside)
– Can’t get wifi without local phone number to approve at a lounge
Guangzhou to New York
+ Employee waiting for me with a sign to make sure I get to my transfer flight (I had 1.5 hours even with delays so wasn’t concerned)
+ Very large lounge with nice shower sections, bigger than other airline lounges (this is their home base)
+ Descent food at a lounge, with limited number of people
– Can’t get wifi without local phone number to approve at a lounge
– Somewhat limited inflight movie selection
Agreed. It was gone as quick as it came out.
that didn’t last very long
Does China Southern have any good redemption sweet spots?
We haven’t done a full analysis of the program. My gut says no, but I can’t speak for sure.
Has anybody been successful…. It appears to be a very limited promo
Was a very limited promo, originally targeted before word and links got out – before they shut it down there were a few reports of early applicants getting accepted but nothing since.
Was anyone successful in receiving a match?
I was just deciding to go for a status match, but I see now it’s useless to try.
Let’s see if the people who have applied very early will have their status match confirmed, otherwise it means China Southern is not mantaining its word!
they sent back a response requesting the name of the person that referred me to this
Excellent! I’ve hit them up with an email since I’ve been looking to status match my way back to SkyTeam. Hope requalification is easy with CZ too.
Good catch. Thanks a lot for mentioning this.