Fortune Wings Club the frequent flyer program for Hainan Airlines, Hongkong Airlines and a couple smaller domestic Chinese carriers is offering two different status challenges allowing to jump into the elite level with this program.
The match promotion offers interested members the chance to be promoted to either the Gold or Silver level depending on the status fulfillment they are able to reach.
I first heard about Fortune Wings two years ago when I was looking into booking a Hongkong Airlines flight and decided to enroll with them and even back then requested a status match (and being offered the same as they have available today).
The program is basically a basket for a variety of airlines but the two main carriers are Beijing based Hainan Airlines and Hongkong Airlines from Hong Kong. International partners include Etihad Airways, Alaska Airlines and Virgin Australia.
Currently there are two status challenge/match promotions:
- Direct Upgrade to Silver Card/Gold Card with one Business Class Booking on specific flights ;
- Status Challenge with a six segment for Silver / twelve segments for Gold Card requirement
Let’s begin with option number one, the ‘direct status upgrade’ for booking a Hainan Airlines business class flight. The level to which your membership is being upgraded depends on the booking class of your ticket:
Fortune Wings Club Members book flight tickets on our website and fly Business Class cabin C/D/Z one-way onetime can directly upgrade to GOLD CARD
Fortune Wings Club Members book flight tickets on our website and fly Business Class cabin I/R one-way onetime can directly upgrade to SILVER CARD
Obviously C/D/Z being the more expensive booking classes while I/R are saver classes and would ‘only’ net a silver status per this promotion. It also requires to be booked on specific long haul flights between China and Europe/North America/Australia-NZ/Middle East:
All other flights don’t qualify as “This special membership upgrade is not available for Asian or other short flight routes.”
Here is a PDF document with the promotional details (the website is horrible and loads just on and off):
This promotion is valid from March 8th 2018 – December 31st 2018 but I wouldn’t hold my breath that it’s really available during the entire year so the earlier you bag this the better it is. I just remind everyone on the disastrous China Southern status match promotion last year.
Option number two is another challenge requiring to have an existing elite membership with another airline or having certain banking relationships in China that aren’t specified. The good thing about this option is you can qualify either by the amount of qualifying points or segments and that’s on all routes, not just certain long haul flights.
You can access the accrual rates for the program here.
From the chart you will spot the advantage right away: Even the low priced Business Class I/R will earn at least 100% Base EQP (I 100% / R 125%) and considering Gold requires 15,000 EQP that might be easier or at least cheaper to achieve than an expensive long haul round trip ticket.
Here are some details of said promotion in a pdf:
What is this all good for?
Obviously the elite levels have a variety of benefits and same as with all other programs some of these are more useful than others.
There are three elite levels: Platinum, Gold and Silver of which only Gold and Silver are available to be matched to through these promotions.
These are the benefits:
The most important benefits in my opinion are always to be able to avoid lines wherever possible which means Elite Check-in, Priority Security/Boarding and also access to the Club Lounge. There is also a benefit that includes complimentary upgrades when booking full fare Economy Class but not sure to how many people this actually applies.
Conclusion
Being able to circumvent lines in Asia is a huge benefit as it is most anywhere else in the world. Hainan is actually a pretty good airlines, I’ve flown them twice and can recommend them. Definitely much better than Air China and other mainland alternatives. Hongkong Airlines, well I found them to be ok but nothing special. Having elite status is probably going to improve the experience with them a little bit.
I wouldn’t go far out of my way to get this match but if you have flights booked with the participating airlines then why not, especially if you plan to use them more frequently.
Both offers require prior registration and in case of option two you will also have to send in your credentials of the other airlines elite status to Fortune Wings. Both campaigns are currently showing to be ongoing until the end of 2018 but as I wrote previously that doesn’t really mean anything should they decide to pull this promo at some point.
Written by LoyaltyLobby @ https://loyaltylobby.com
Written by LoyaltyLobby @ https://loyaltylobby.com