Elite status from Frontier Airlines is pretty weak. I recently earned it.

Basically, you get to select your seat and carry on a bag for free.

It’s great that you can choose any available “Stretch” seat at check-in, but if you’re traveling with someone, you have to shell out up to $75 bucks for them to sit with you in Stretch.

What is great is that Alaska Airlines will match your Frontier Elite status, giving you a chance to try Alaska’s lowest-tier elite status, MVP.

Frontier is one of the cheapest elite statuses to earn, requiring only 20K flown miles. With dirt cheap fares, this could be very easy (if you can stand Frontier).

But first, what is elite status?

After you fly a certain number of miles or spend a certain amount of money with an airline, you can earn elite status, which brings various benefits depending on the airline: Priority check-in/boarding, free checked bags, waived fees, preferred seating, complimentary upgrades, express security, and points/miles earnings bonuses.

Here are links to a few of the biggest airlines’ elite status info:

American, Alaska, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, Virgin America, United

What is a status match?

Airlines want to steal your loyalty from their competitors, so they often offer status matches where they will give you their equivalent of your elite status for free, without you having to fly a mile.

There’s actually a whole site dedicated to helping you status match.

Alaska Airlines has one of the simplest status matches out there:

Simply email them at elite.flyer@alaskaair.com and include your Alaska Airlines loyalty number, along with proof of your elite status with another airline (screenshots or copies of your elite membership card).

Here’s the email I sent to Alaska:

Two weeks later, I got this email:

One cool thing about even the lowest-tier Alaska elite status? You get benefits with some of Alaska’s partner airlines, including American and Delta.

If you status match with Alaska Airlines now, you’ll have their elite benefits for the rest of 2016 and all of 2017. As this post details, now could be a great time to give it a try.

Keep in mind, airlines will usually only match your status once, so try not to waste it.

The only other status match I’ve done was with a hotel.

Feel free to post any questions or comments!