SAS offers easy elite status match amid alliance shift

During the process, SAS mentioned that they might ask for proof but have yet to do so in many cases. One individual shared their experience: "I submitted a match request on Friday, stating that I have British Airways Silver status (which happens to be true). I listed my address as a prominent hotel in the U.K. Tuesday morning I received an email confirming that I would receive the match."

This participant requested the match as an experiment and noted, "It’s SkyTeam Elite Plus, but I already have that through Air France KLM Flying Blue where I’m a Gold member." They added that SkyTeam Elite Plus does not provide as many benefits compared to similar statuses in Star Alliance and oneworld.

Reflecting on this situation and similar ones with other airlines, they commented on potential vulnerabilities: "Earlier this month I wrote about how United’s status match system was being scammed. MileagePlus stopped verifying that credentials were real. They stopped verifying that the people getting the status were real."

The issue raises questions about fraud management within loyalty programs: "The optimal amount of fraud isn’t zero... But some of the pathways for fraud are just super obvious."