Vietnam’s Bamboo Airways has once again opened a new status match campaign that invites tier matching from competitor Vietnam Airlines as well as SkyTeam, Star Alliance and oneWorld alliance carriers programs.
Bamboo Airways will match to all four tiers of their Bamboo Club, but the higher tiers beyond Silver level will require a flight activity in order to process the match.
Furthermore it should be noted that Bamboo Airways is not a member of any alliance and as such it won’t make sense to match with them unless you plan to actually take flights on this airline.
Naturally, this leaves an exclusive target group of Vietnam travelers, which can be either domestic or international depending on the current route network of Bamboo Airways.
You can access their website with details about the status match here.
Loyalty Program Bamboo Club of Bamboo Airways would like to send to members the latest update of tier-matching program from other airlines belonging to airline alliances around the world to Bamboo Club card. Specific content as follows:
1. Time of application: from 01/01/2023 to 31/12/2023
2. Eligible members: All customers possessing valid membership cards of all airlines / international airlines’ membership cards or membership cards of other airlines in the country and around the world.
3. Conditions of application:
- Diamond/First: Members take at least 01 BUSINESS class flight with Bamboo Airways in the period from June 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023. The flight needs to be flown before the card is tier-matching. Issue of hard card: applicable.
- Gold: Members take at least 01 Economy class flight with Bamboo Airways in the period from June 1, 2022 to December 31, 2023. The flight needs to be flown before the card is tier-matching.
- Emerald: No conditions needed.
The required flights are a single segment, not a round trip (at least that’s the way I read it).
From what can be taken in the general information is that cards will only be sent within Vietnam and are included for First/Diamond status only. Gold and Emerald members have to pay 50,000 VND for a card to be produced and sent.
The matches will be processed according to the following roster:
As I mentioned, Bamboo Airways isn’t an alliance member of any kind, although they do have an independent partnership with Air Canada that we reported about a few months ago:
What are the actual benefits of the program?
It appears that the match to FIRST level is the most desirable in this context and all Star Alliance Gold as well as SkyTeam Elite Plus and oneWorld Emerald are eligible for it.
Here are the FIRST Benefits in Detail:
√ Access to Priority Check-in Desk – at Noi Bai, Da Nang, Tan Son Nhat airport / Business Check-in Desk – at the remaining airports (+ 6 additional guests).
√ Access to Business Class Lounge *.
√ Priority Seat Selection.
√ Fee waiver on additional 20kg checked baggage on each flight.
√ Priority Baggage Tagging Service.
√ Access to Priority Line at Boarding Gate.
√ Complimentary upgrade to Bamboo Business if your original seat class is full and higher tiered seat class is available at the time of check-in or boarding.
√ Complimentary upgrade to Premium Economy class when buying Economy Saver tickets or higher tiered seat class and the Premium Economy seat is available at the time of check-in or boarding.
√ Priority Arrangement in case of flight irregularities.
√ Bonus points awarded on your birthday (1,500 points).
√ Accumulate and redeem points on all services offered by Bamboo Airways and selected services offered by Bamboo Club’s partners.
(*) For international flights operated by Bamboo Airways (except charter flights), First tier members will be able to enter First lounge/Business lounge, including the domestic lounge for outbound segment and the international lounge for inbound segment. This benefit will be applied to the First tier members only (not applied to accompanying person of First members and Diamond tier members).
Before applying for the status match you have to sign up for a membership number on the website and fill in the google docs document with all your details.
Bamboo Airways also requires you to submit a photo of your passport and the membership card of your frequent flyer program. If you’re not comfortable with the passport photo submission that’s unfortunately already the end of this project.
Conclusion
Bamboo Airways has a new status match campaign that might be interesting for travelers who frequently travel to or within Vietnam using the airline. The match of higher tiers is contingent upon taken an actual flight with the carrier which should be taken into account.
This isn’t the first time Bamboo Airways is running a status match but this time around there is a stricter criteria than during the 2022 campaign, which was an instant match without any flying activity needed. They probably learned that it just creates a lot of work just to match dead accounts as many people will never use the match or fly Bamboo Airlines and just applied because they could.
