Psst, want to apply for a Cathay Pacific status match?

Cathay Pacific has rolled out an unexpected but very welcome status match offer – so welcome, in fact, that the offer was immediately over-subscribed.

But don’t give up hope: a Cathay Pacific spokesperson tells Executive Traveller the online status match application form has been only “temporarily removed.”

At the time of writing, visitors to the Cathay Pacific status match page are now seeing an error message saying “Due to the overwhelming number of applications received, we are unable to facilitate additional requests at this time. Please revisit this page at a later date.” 

The Cathay Pacific status match page didn’t target or restrict this match to any particular competing airline – it simply said ”If you’re a frequent flyer member with another airline, you may be eligible to match your membership account to Cathay membership and enjoy a range of respective status benefits, like priority check-in, lounge access and extra baggage allowance.”

However, this wasn’t some wide open offer: Cathay says the form was “for members to submit their status match request for our case-by-case review.”

All the same, “due to the overwhelming response the submission form has been temporarily removed.”

Cathay Gold status includes access to business class lounges.

Cathay Pacific has three ‘elite tiers’ to its loyalty program, which was previously known as the Marco Polo Club but was last year rebranded to ‘Cathay’.

Cathay Silver, which is equivalent to Oneworld Ruby, offers a basic set of benefits such as priority standby and access to priority check-in counters at the airport.

Cathay Gold, which lines up against Oneworld Sapphire, comes with a fistful of more practical benefits such as business lounge access, an additional 10kg checked baggage allowance with priority handling, and priority boarding – for many frequent flyers, this represents the status sweet spot.

Cathay Diamond, which also qualifies as Oneworld Emerald, adds access to first class lounges as its headline perk; other benefits include 15kg of luggage, guaranteed seating and the ability to put your membership on hold for up to one year

Rest easy: the Cathay Pacific status match will be back online soon...

The airline hasn’t outlined which tiers of competing airline programs would line up against its own status levels. But based on the airline’s past history on status matches you can expect a match to one level below your ‘other airline’status, rather than to a direct equivalent – for example, a successful status match for Emirates Skywards Platinum might yield only a Cathay Gold card.

None the less, the immense popularity of the Cathay Pacific status match shows there’s a high appetite for the opportunity it lays out – and if you’re keen to join the crowd, keep an eye on the Cathay Pacific status match page for its eventual reappearance.