ITA Airways Fly, SkyTeam speaks: "Status recognition in coming months, points accumulation later"
We have been following the fate of the Volare program and everything related to ITA Airways' loyalty program since [...]
ITA Airways
SkyTeam
We follow the fortunes of the Flying program and everything about the ITA Airways loyalty program from the day of his birth. As we had had a chance to write the first (and also the second) status match campaign had attracted interest from many travelers around the world. Not because they were really interested in ITA status, but because of the recognition of the SkyTeam Elite Plus level in all the airline alliance companies.
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Delays and vicissitudes then led to the official launch last March 1., when the qualification rules for obtaining/renewing statuses and those for accumulating Volare points were announced, as well as how to apply for award tickets.
In recent weeks many industry sites around the world have written about ITA, and the problems associated with status recognition, and today LoyaltyLobby published some statements by SkyTeam, Delta and ITA Airways regarding the Italian carrier's membership in the alliance, accumulation of points with flights of other carriers and recognition of status.
N.B. We here at TFC. we contacted the press office of ITA Airways on March 2, since then we have been waiting for a response on our questions, the very same ones that LL was able to get explanations on.
Below is the response sent by SkyTeam to Sebastian from LL translated into Italian:
Thank you for your patience. Here is the information we received from ITA and the SkyTeam Loyalty team regarding the Volare program.
Volare is no longer in the start-up phase, the program was activated earlier this year: launched in January and only became available in March.
Program, which is up and running, still needs to be integrated with SkyTeam and alliance member airlines. This activity only began in March, so it is still work in progress.
ITA Airways' recognition of SkyTeam Elite and Elite Plus began in December 2021.
The recognition of Flying Elite and Elite Plus by SkyTeam members. will be launched gradually Starting in the second quarter of 2022
Mutual gain and use/redemption with ITA will come Gradually launched starting in the second half of this year.
LL also got an official response from ITA Airways which, as mentioned, we here at TFC have been waiting for a month.
As you know our company is a "start-up" that began operations about five months ago. Given this special status, in consultation with the SkyTeam team it was decided to develop the various program contents step by step until full system integration with Sky Team, SkyTeam members and service integration was achieved. This includes the various services offered such as reciprocal accumulation, point redemption between ITA Airways and partner airline flights, lounge access, recognition for Elite and Elite Plus Volare customers, and other alliance benefits.
On the Web, all the enthusiasts in the world of reward travel and loyalty programs agree that it has never happened with any airline/loyalty program to have a staggered start as happened with Volare.
In conclusion
We have been highlighting all these issues for months and in spite of the Times Square ads and airplane photos, on the net the name of ITA Airways is already taken as a negative example just because of the issue of benefits and Skyteam status: frequent flyers, those who fly a lot and who were so extolled when they the carrier spoke about the success of the first Status Match campaign, all they do is post negative comments about the situation. We hope things will improve even though we are increasingly pessimistic.
