Success stories, how Dario was able to use Millemiglia points to book vacations to Santo Domingo
We have written it many times: Alitalia is dead, but Millemiglia, the historic loyalty program that flew so many Italians [...]
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We have written this many times: Alitalia is dead, but Millemiglia, the historic loyalty program that has made so many Italians and others fly, Is still alive and struggling to survive. Although no one wants to buy it, Despite the class action lawsuit by the bugged customers, still manages to give some satisfaction almost 2 years after the end of activities.
Today we tell the story of Dario, a TFC reader who wrote to us to share how he succeeded in the impossible feat of being able to detach two award tickets using agonizing MyMile points.
The ticket to Santo Domingo
I want to tell about my experience of issuing award flight with AirEuropa through mymiglia (formerly Alitalia's MilleMiglia program). I finally managed to book an award flight with AirEuropa. I almost used up my remaining MM points.
Business flight for two, in February 2024, from Milan to Santo Domingo (with a stopover in Madrid of course) and back.
The final expenditure was 400 thousand MM total (200 thousand per person) + 500 euro total tax (just over 250 euro per person), the same tickets booked with traditional payment would have cost about 3 thousand euro per passenger.
Sure AirEuropa's business is not great, but still better than any economy.
How did Dario pull off the prize tickets.
The issue was, as you can imagine, an odyssey, again for the usual reason: One must find the willing operator.
I went on for almost a week, calling morning and afternoon.
Sometimes they would tell me there was no availability for the return. Sometimes they would tell me they had problems with the reservation system, sometimes with AirEuropa's system for calculating taxes. And they would tell me to try again the next day.
Two one way tickets and magically here is the availability
One day I catch a yelp and she tells me there is a problem on their commission payment system (I will learn later that they use sum up) and invites me, like the others, to call the following day. He tells me, though, that if I talk to one of his colleagues the next day and if she sees that there is availability on the outbound and not on the return, he tells me to advise her to break the flight into two one-way legs, that availability appears.
The big day
Finally, one morning, I catch a straggler.. She tells me we can do the whole thing, checks availability and tells me there is no availability for the return. I advise her to break it up, she tries it and indeed we have availability for both legs.
So I decide to issue, it takes about 40 minutes, I pay the taxes to AirEuropa in two transactions (150 one-way and 220 return) and their commission (70 euros each). As soon as I get the etickets, I immediately chose the seats on the AirEuropa website.
Alternatives for the use of points
I could have used those 200 thousand MM points for 3 last minute vouchers of 250€, but with those vouchers (and the 250 cash) I could have bought 3 flights under 280/290€. Better two flights in business than three in echo!
Final considerations
There is still time until September 15 to save MyMiglia points, unless yet another extension is granted, then there is no telling what will happen. Obviously Dario has turned water into wine, since the points are practically waste paper or almost.
- 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