ITA Airways the obstacle start of the program Volare
Yesterday we wrote about how, much to our surprise, the mailbox of Volare program subscribers was delivered [...]
ITA Airways
SkyTeam
Yesterday we wrote about how, much to our surprise, in the inboxes of Volare subscribers Has been delivered the new ITA Airways frequent flyer card. I say with surprise because the mailing was expected by the end of February and instead it arrived much earlier than expected.
In this article:
The program Volare has, According to management's statement, just under 230,000 members. Of those enrolled almost one in five is the result of the status match campaign launched on October 15 and ended, after an extension, on December 31.
We created on FB a group Dedicated to discussions about the fly program, if you are interested sign up.
According to publicly released data, there were nearly 49 thousand requests for status match, of which the 66% came from former Millemiglia customers. However, many of these yesterday received erroneous communications.
There are those who received an email with a card in someone else's name, there are those who received a different status than that communicated with the outcome of the status match, and those who did not receive any communication at all. The news has already made the rounds on the web, just as much resonance had the status match campaign.
What still doesn't add up about the Volare loyalty program
There are Still so many unknowns regarding ITA Airways' new frequent flyer, and it must be admitted that communications from the carrier in this regard are very deficient.
Altavilla at his hearing last week had praised the outcome of the campaign as well as the quality of the members compared to the old Millemiglia audience, however, it is obvious that in the 49 thousand members there are also plenty of users who (probably) will never set foot on an ITA flight and who joined only to take advantage of the benefits provided by Elite Plus status in the SkyTeam alliance.
The first thing that doesn't add up is that the status for everyone will expire in January 2023, as planned at launch, Too bad the program will take off 2 months late and that even today there is no information on how many points and what criteria will be needed to renew the cards. Indeed, if in the previous communication si talked about starting the second phase by the end of February, in yesterday's email it was changed to March 1. So I would have expected an ex officio extension to at least March/April 2023.
It is good to remember that each program has its own rule for status expiration, a great many use the date of enrollment while others end of the year, so Volare could easily stretch the level and keep everyone happy.
On the issue of lounges, however, there is something that I just keep not understanding. ITA Airways is a SkyTeam member, so all Premium and Executive members should be able to use any lounge of the alliance or one of its companies. Instead ITA on its website compiles a list of lounges accessible to its customers.
While it is great to know that you will also have access to lounges where SkyTeam carriers are not present, it is not clear why they are also inserted four Skyteam lounge and not simply a wording specifying that business travelers or SkyPriority ticket holders can also access all lounges -e.g. the brand new, and beautiful, one in Paris CDG - as it should be thanks precisely to the SkyTeam alliance.
I understand, for example, that ITA Airways has not made any agreement with the Nice lounge operator., but I understand much less that an agreement was closed in Italy only with the lounge at Turin Caselle airport, and not with the others in the territory where ITA flies regularly and several times a day as Genoa or Palermo.
It is also unclear whether a passenger with A codeshare flight with Delta will have, for example in New York, access to the SkyClub in Terminal 4, or if you will not have access to other lounges outside those listed.
There is then the unknown flights made from Oct. 15 to March 1, how will those made with other SkyTeam carriers be recovered? To date it was impossible to enter one's Volare number, but now it is possible. Now we have to wait for the various portals of the partner carriers to update to provide for the entry of the unique code of each Volare member and sooner or later see in one's private area ticking off the accumulated points, starting even with the welcome bonus of 10 thousand points promised at the launch of the campaign. All on trust of course.
In conclusion
True one should not forget that ITA Airways is a startup, however, it is also true that one does not have to reinvent the wheel, and the basics of a frequent flyer program are well known. Also because, judging from the linkedin profiles we found on the net, many people who govern the carrier's loyalty are the same ones who did it for Alitalia for years.
