Royal Air Maroc has opened a new status match campaign last week, offering matches up to their Safar Flyer Gold tier (maps to OneWorld Sapphire) with an official campaign ending date of May 31, 2022.
Most recent reports indicate that the portal that processes the status matches is no longer accepting applications for the Gold status (oneWorld Sapphire) and instead only offers Silver tier.
This is noteworthy because, unlike most other matches, the Royal Air Maroc campaign has a processing charge of 49 Euro and while that’s ok (in my opinion) to match to oneWorld Sapphire status there is no way I’d pay that to get Safar Silver which only maps to oneWorld Ruby.
You can read my initial article about the status match here (published on Thursday):
Royal Air Maroc Status Match Opportunity To OneWorld Sapphire Level Through May 31, 2022
Some readers had success matching while others tried yesterday afternoon (Friday) and Gold Status was already gone, an automatic message only offered Silver tier.
Here are some comments from our readers on my article above:
I’m glad it worked at least for some who decided who got into the match early on. For all others I agree that it makes no sense to pay 49 Euro to match to oneWorld Ruby on an airline that’s pretty much no use for general mileage accrual. I’d probably pay that for American AAdvantage Gold due to the AA specific benefits but not for a random carrier based in North Africa.
This match is processed by StatusMatch.com which is a provider that has specialized in handling and verifying the submitted applications on behalf of the airline.
Frequent Fliers of the following programs are eligible to apply for a match:
- Aegean Airlines – Miles+Bonus
- Air Canada – Aeroplan
- Air Europa – SUMA Program
- Air France – Flying Blue
- Czech Airlines – OK Plus
- Delta Air Lines – SkyMiles
- Egyptair – Plus
- El Al – Matmid
- Emirates – Skywards
- Ethiopian Airlines – ShebaMiles
- Etihad – Etihad Guest
- Gulf Air – Falconflyer
- JetBlue – TrueBlue Rewards
- KLM – Flying Blue
- Kenya Airways – Flying Blue
- LATAM – LATAM Pass
- Lufthansa – Miles & More
- Middle East Airlines – Cedar Miles
- Oman Air – Sinbad
- Saudia – Alfursan
- Scandinavian Airlines – EuroBonus
- South African Airways – SAA Voyager
- TAP Air Portugal – Miles&Go
- Tunisar – Fidelys Program
- Turkish Airlines – Miles&Smiles
- United Airlines – MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic – Flying Club
- WestJet – Westjet Rewards
Members of these programs had the choice to match to either Silver or Gold depending on their initial program tier but apparently less than 48 hours after launch now only Silver is left.
The 49 Euro fee is definitely deterring “fun matches” of people who have no intention of using the Safar Flyer membership in a way that it benefits Royal Air Maroc as in actually crediting miles there. The likelihood of people paying 49 Euro just for fun is very small.
It’s unclear who will pocket the 49 Euro, I’m sure Statusmatch.com at least earns a decent portion of it as they provide the infrastructure to process the match. This means the carrier has very little financial incentive to keep signups up and they probably got scared after receiving thousands of match requests from overseas members (who all plan to use the card at partner lounges).
I mentioned right from the start that This match offer “is limited in the number of matches so it may end at any time even before the official deadline of May 31, 2022” and apparently they made use of this clause.
The response was probably much greater than anticipated and the management got concerned about the potential expenses coming their way from people who use their new membership en masse with partner carriers who would then charge for lounge access. RAM would then be footing the bill and let’s face it – none of the overseas matches will ever set foot on Royal Air Maroc itself.
Conclusion
This Royal Air Maroc status match campaign comes at a cost of 49 Euro and the tier would then be valid for a year. In less than 48 hours the Gold level is already gone and not available for matching anymore.
As described in the T&C there won’t be a physical card sent, it’s all digital. You would probably have to enter the membership number in the reservation first in order to obtain the benefits or bank on the carrier of your choice accepting the digital card.
These are the Terms & Conditions of this matching campaign:
Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer Status Match Campaign
These specific Royal Air Maroc Safar Flyer status match terms and conditions apply in addition to the general StatusMatch.com Terms of Service.
(I) Only 1 status match per person will be permitted under this campaign matching to either Safar Flyer Gold or Silver Tiers.
(II) If approved, the status match upgrade is valid until March 31, 2023.
(III) All status match requests are handled by and are the responsibility of StatusMatch.com and not by Royal Air Maroc, Safar Flyer or any of its affiliates.
(IV) In addition to other eligibility requirements, a status match will only be granted to applicant’s who’s name matches the records in the Safar Flyer program.
(V) With the participation in the campaign, participants acknowledge that the data submitted to Statusmatch.com will be shared with Royal Air Maroc for verification purposes.
(VI) Only elite status holders of eligible airlines in the table further below, who pay the fee, and are fully validated will receive the matched status.
(VII) The Status Match offer is limited in number of matches and timeframe (until 31 May 2022) at the sole discretion of StatusMatch.com and Royal Air Maroc. It may end at any time.
(VIII) Members that are approved for a status match will not be eligible for any potential subsequent status match with Safar Flyer.
(IX) The awarded Safar Flyer status may be suspended, revoked or terminated by Royal Air Maroc in accordance with the Safar Flyer or StatusMatch.com program terms and conditions.
(X) Royal Air Maroc or StatusMatch.com reserve the right to deny the status match approval for users at its sole descretion.
(XI) Royal Air Maroc may take up to 5 business days after approval by StatusMatch.com before the upgraded tier is visible in the member’s Safar Flyer account.
(XII) Approved members will not receive a physical status card. The digital status card is available from the time of upgrade in the Safar Flyer app.
