It is 6 am on Monday 
morning at Sea-Tac airport and I am in the ‘Sky Priority’ lane to try to get in ahead of my fellow passengers.
How did I get to be a Delta ‘Sky Priority’ Platinum member, since I have flown mostly on United the prior year? Well, you apply for a ‘status match’ with your new airline. Your new ‘preferred’ airline grants you a temporary elite status* match for three months to see if you are actually bringing them enough flying to justify your temporary status. (If you don’t, your elite status disappears and you have to earn it the hard way with a full year of flying enough miles). So while my new Delta Platinum status did not get me upgraded to the luxe first class seats this Monday, it did help me get out of the middle seat in the back of the airplane to a seat further up to the front on the aisle, and with more legroom.
*Please don’t be too jealous of my ‘elite’ flying status. All it means is that I fly a lot, and that I sometimes Iuck out and sit in front of the plane !