TAM, which merged with Oneworld Alliance member LAN to create LATAM couple of years ago, exited Star Alliance on March 30th and entered Oneworld on March 31, 2014.
Now, number of Star Alliance airlines are offering TAM Red and Black frequent flier card holders instant status match for Star Alliance Gold status.
You can access this offer on Star Alliance’s website here.
The airlines offering status matches:
Air Canada
Air China
Air New Zealand
Copa Airlines
Ethiopian
Scandinavian Airlines
South African Airways
TAP
Turkish Airlines
United Airlines
It is somewhat surprising that Avianca is not offering instant matches to their Gold status that would likely benefit former TAM members the most.
Thanks for a LoyaltyLobby reader in Brazil forwarding the offer that he had received.
Conclusion
It is interesting to see if there will be instant matches for US Airways frequent fliers as well.
If you are TAM elite member eligible for this match, I would look into matching for United/Copa (same program), TAP or Turkish Airlines.
The Copa/United is reasonable match if you are planning to fly either of these two airlines. Copa provides space available upgrades on all of its flights. TAP could be a choice for those that use the airline between Brazil and Europe.
Turkish could be an option for those TAM members that don’t fly that much on either United/Copa or TAP, but would prefer having Star Alliance Gold status.
If you are TAM member and will continue flying the airline regardless of the witch to Oneworld, there is no downside for doing this status match with one of the eligible airlines. You never know when the Star Alliance Gold status could come handy.
