[Ombudsman]

That was extremely shady. I would reccommend that you write a letter to customer service. You may get some compensation especially given your status. If the same had happened to me I would try to at least get the miles redeposited to your account. They probably won't refund the copay for the upgrade but airlines dole out miles all of the time for service issues. Mention in your letter that is what you feel would be fair compensation. Often suggesting an acceptable solution up-front will get better results than leaving it open-ended.

To answer your question, yes airlines do offer status matches. Having status with one airline and an interest in taking your business elsewhere means potential revenue to the competitor. Choose an airline that will best suit your needs given your travel patterns, either current or future, and also provides a comparable premium product. Sometimes an airline will offer you a carte blanche status match with no strings attached while others may require you to fly a set number of miles or segments in agiven amount of time to keep the matched status level so they know you are serious about giving them your business. A good strategy is to wait until late in the year to request the match as it will often carry over to the next year. Getting a status match now may have you scrambling to requalify with the potential of losing status at the end of the current year. One last bit of advice is to choose wisely as many status match offers are a once in lifetime so if you are granted the match and lose status you may not be able to get another match again with that airline.

Good luck on bioth accounts and please return to post your results. Safe and happy travels!