When you earn elite status through an airline that's part of an alliance, in a way, you’re earning two elite statuses. First, you receive benefits from the airline with which you earned your status. However, you also achieve elite status with that airline's global alliance.

Elite members of United MileagePlus, Air Canada Aeroplan and other Star Alliance loyalty programs are granted one of two elite status levels in the Star Alliance program: Silver or Gold. However, the perks of these two elite status levels are vastly different.

Here's a guide to Star Alliance Silver — including some of the easiest ways to get Star Alliance Silver status.

Star Alliance Silver benefits

There are just two published benefits to Star Alliance Silver: priority reservations waitlist and priority airport standby. Unfortunately, neither of these is all that exciting for most travelers.

Priority reservation waitlist gives you priority over non-elite members when a flight is sold out. That could be useful if you'd want to waitlist for award availability. But alas, this reservations waitlist benefit expressly excludes travel on award tickets.

The priority airport standby perk can be a bit more valuable to travelers. Whether you're trying to get on an earlier flight or rebooking after a flight cancellation, Star Alliance Silver elites get higher priority on the standby list. Yet again, this benefit isn't available for those traveling on award tickets.

How to get Star Alliance Silver

Travelers can earn Star Alliance Silver elite status through any of the 26 Star Alliance member airlines. Two of those 26 Star Alliance airlines are based in North America, making them the most-relevant choices for earning status.

Star Alliance member airlines

Aegean Airlines.

Air Canada.

Air China.

Air India.

Air New Zealand.

All Nippon Airways (ANA).

Asiana Airlines.

Austrian Airlines.

Avianca.

Brussels Airlines.

Copa Airlines.

Croatia Airlines.

EgyptAir.

Ethiopian Airlines.

Eva Air.

Lot Polish Airlines.

Lufthansa.

Scandinavian Airlines.

Shenzhen Airlines.

Singapore Airlines.

South African Airways.

Swiss.

TAP Air Portugal.

Thai Airways.

Turkish Airlines.

United Airlines.

The best choice for you will depend on the benefits offered by each airline, considering Star Alliance Silver offers limited benefits on partner airlines.

Once you earn status with an affiliated airline, you’ll get status in the Star Alliance program at the corresponding level.

United MileagePlus

United travelers can earn Star Alliance Silver elite status by earning Premier Silver elite status in MileagePlus. In 2022, a MileagePlus member must earn 3,500 Premier Qualifying Points or eight Premier Qualifying Flights plus 3,000 PQP to earn Premier Silver elite status.

In 2023, United Airlines travelers had to earn 5,000 PQP in a calendar year to earn Premier Silver status. However, travelers could reduce that requirement to 4,000 PQP if 12 PQF were earned.

Premier Silver elite status offers much more than just Star Alliance Silver status. United Silver elites get complimentary Premier upgrades, complimentary Economy Plus extra-legroom seats at check-in, one free checked bag of up to 70 pounds, 7 bonus miles per eligible dollar spent on United flights and more.

Air Canada Aeroplan

Another way to Star Alliance Silver is through Air Canada. Aeroplan members achieve Aeroplan 25K elite status after earning 3,000 Status Qualifying Dollars plus 25,000 Status Qualifying Miles or 25 Status Qualifying Segments. Aeroplan 25K elite status grants Star Alliance Silver.

However, there's an even easier way for U.S. travelers to earn Aeroplan 25K elite status and Star Alliance Silver. New cardholders of the Aeroplan® Credit Card by Chase are automatically granted Aeroplan 25K elite status.