ITA Airways sale to Lufthansa: here are the best award tickets bookable in Star Alliance
With the sale of ITA Airways to Lufthansa now seemingly a matter of days, and the inevitable move to Star Alliance [...]
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With the vendita of ITA Airways to Lufthansa, now it would seem a matter of days, and the inevitable transition to Star Alliance for Italian frquent flyers everything changes, goodbye old certainties and welcome new opportunities.
Star Alliance airlines.
First of all, it is necessary to give a brief summary of the new alliance, also because Alitalia first and ITA later have always remained within Skyteam, this means that you will have to familiarize yourself with the new alliance companies, the new referral hubs, and the features of the various carriers, starting with the fact that you can earn points and status even thanks to travel aboard Deutsche Bahn trains.
The new partners of ITA Airways will be : Air Dolomiti, Aegean, Air Canada, Air China, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian, Avianca, Brussels Airlines, CopaAirlines, Croatia Airlines, Egyptair, Ethiopian, LOT, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Swiss, TAP Portugal, Thai, Turkish Airlines, and United Airlines.
Best award tickets bookable with Miles&More miles
We have repeatedly talked about what are prize tickets and above all we have Published dozens of reviews of flights made by paying a few tens of euros simply by using points accumulated from traveling and everyday spending.
Today I want to make a non-exhaustive list of the main rewards that will be possible to give yourself once you have completed the transition of ITA Airways frequent flyers into the made-in-Germany frequent flyer.
#1 All Nippon Airlines' First Class.
No doubt the best way to use the points will be to book a ticket aboard ANA First Class, now one of the few ways to book it For us Italians, it was to go through Virgin Atlantic points., it now becomes significantly easier to book The Loft and The Room, or the first and business class products of Japan's largest airline.
Currently 777/300s with these cabins fitted out fly in Europe only to London and will return to Frankfurt shortly. It takes 111k miles and an additional payment of €273 in taxes to book it with M&M points. Many more than Virgin Atlantic is asking for today, but unfortunately there is no alternative.
However, there is an additional option of using the points to fly aboard theANA network's only A380 route, the Tokyo/Honolulu. In fact, Japanese flying turtles are used only on the route to Hawaii, a ticket in first costs "only" 65k M&M points And just under 200€ in taxes.
Of course, immediately below first class are the business class seats, also a real experience on board the carrier from the Rising Sun.
#2 RTW without paying
RTW is an acronym for Round The World, viz. A ticket to go around the world.
Just this summer I did my first world tour with one ticket, a PNR that took me to visit 4 continents and to Time travel for the first time in my life.
Booking this coupon requires: 180k points for an economy ticket, 335k for business class and half a million for a dream trip in first class. You will then be able to choose from Krisflyer points and Miles&More to try to book this dream itinerary.
#3 the Lufthansa first class
In order of desirability these tickets come, in my opinion, behind those listed above. The reason is that ANA's first class is significantly better than what Lufthansa and Swiss offer today.
The unique thing about Lufthansa's first, which will soon be completely revamped, is that it is the only one in the world that allows travel while sitting in front of the pilot.
The chairs of first in fact are in the lower floor of 747/8 and allow passengers in the first two rows to be seated in front of the pilots. In addition to the 747s, Lufthansa's first is also on board the A380s and will soon be installed in the new A350s.
Sure today this seat is bookable using Krisflyer points, but only last minute, if you want to redeem an award ticket before 14 days you have to have Miles&More points in your pocket. The fixed schedule allows booking a first class from Frankfurt to Los Angeles from 91k points plus tax. The fare goes up for routes to Asia and South America to 111k MM.
#4 the first of Swiss
The most attentive readers will surely have read Riccardo's experience in first class with Swiss.
Booking the best class of travel on board the Swiss flag carrier Is even more complicated than Lufthansa, the reason being that you have to be a Senator or HON Circle member to book this ticket. The shortcut exists though, and as Riccardo did, you can always use the miles to upgrade from business to first, seats permitting.
#5 take advantage of the Meilenschnaeppchen
For those unfamiliar with German the Meilenschnaeppchen are the monthly Miles&More offers that allow you to redeem award tickets at a significant discount. An action similar to that of the Flying Blue program.
Admittedly Lufthansa's business class is not among the most attractive in the world, but that will soon change, and taking advantage of these offers often allows you to detach attractive award tickets to fly around the world while spending very few points (but lots of fees).
For example, round-trip business class tickets to the U.S. at 55k MM points, or 40k for premium economy, really discounted rates of 50%.
#6 Free stopover + open jaw
One of the greatest strengths of the Miles & More program is the generous stopover and open jaw regulations.
One or more stopovers and/or open jaw can be added to most award flights, providing an easy way to increase the value of miles spent.
For example, a hypothetical award ticket from Milan to the U.S. might have the following itinerary:
Milan-Frankfurt-New York-San Francisco, stopping over in the Big Apple before departing again toward the west coast. The re-departure could be from Las Vegas to Miami, stopping perhaps for a trip to Disneyland, before departing homeward again. This is all because up to 6 legs are allowed with a single award ticket, in a single PNR and at a cost ati 112k MM for a business ticket.
In conclusion
These are just some of the uses of M&M points, now all that remains is to wait for the rules of engagement for Italian frequent travelers and what will come out of the marriage between Volare and M&M.
- 6,000 Mile Registration Bonus
- Collect miles WITH EACH PURCHASE
- Your miles with no expiration*
- No fees for ATM withdrawals and foreign purchases
- Without having to change banks
- Autonomous card activation
- Multi-function mobile application
- Free travel insurance
- Free credit for up to 7 weeks
- Contactless Payment
- Mastercard® SecureCode
- 20€ discount directly in your statement by spending €60 in one or more transactions with Carta on Italotreno.it
- Free fee the 1st year. From the 2nd €5.50 per month
- You can choose to pay in full or in installments
- Premium level of the Italo Più program
- 4 Vouchers per year for access to Italo Club Lounges
- Preferential Access to Italo's Fast Track at the station
- For every 5 purchases of Italo ticketing and/or onboard services made with Italo American Express Credit Card you will receive 1 voucher for room upgrade
- Welcome bonus of 100,000 Volare points upon reaching 6 thousand in spending in the first 3 months after card issuance
- Accumulate 1.5 qualifying Volare points for every euro spent, accumulate an additional 3 non-qualifying Volare points ( for a total of 4.5 Volare points) for every euro spent on ticketing purchases and other services offered by ITA Airways
- Access to the Premium Club of ITA Airways' Volare program.
- ITA Airways Lounge Access
- Free excess baggage
- Points Back