ITA Airways sale, why it's better for us Italians to switch to Star Alliance

Here at TFC we are very pragmatic., discussions about maximum systems interest us to a certain extent. We want Italy to have a solid carrier that can attract travelers for the country system and, above all, that allow us to go where we want to go by scoring as many points as possible.

This is not new, I have always been rooting for the MSC/Lufthansa pairing. and now that Lufthansa runs alone I am even more pleased, indeed in 2021 when the opportunity for the Italian-German duo had not yet arisen, I had indicated as my preference precisely the German group.

Better Star Alliance than Skyteam

On this site we mainly talk about take advantage of the benefits of loyalty programs and of the international alliances, from the perspective of the Italian user Star Alliance is the least easy to scale. There are mainly two reasons for this:

1. Among the partner carriers American Express, namely those where it is possible to Transfer Membership Rewards points for free, there is a clear predominance of Skyteam and OneWorld companies
2.  Of the three global alliances, Skyteam is the weakest one, although shortly the entrance to Virgin Atlantic Will score a few points. Especially for travel to the East, suffer from the lack of a level partner. Without forgetting that excluding Air France's La Premiere is also the one that offers the least "quality" on board aircraft.

The government's U-turn on the divestment of ITA Airways Will certainly have an impact on the Italian company's membership within Lufthansa's "enemy" alliance. Of course, it may also not be an immediate consequence since right now the Rome-based carrier is beginning to Close agreements with partner carriers.

Within Star Alliance. there are some of the world's best airlines such as Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airlines, but more importantly there are airlines such as Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, and United that fly virtually anywhere in the world. Being able to easily accumulate points by flying ITA Airways to then take advantage of on these now almost totally unaffordable airlines is a real quantum leap.

Other alliances

At the same time, however, you would not lose access to Skyteam products through Air France and KLM and OneWorld with British and Iberia. The point is precisely this: with ITA moving to an alliance other than Skyteam, the other two alliances would also remain open for Italian frequent flyers, due to its strong presence in the Italian market and the importance of connections via Paris, Amsterdam, London and Madrid.

In addition, thanks to Membership Rewards points one will always be able to transfer from American Express to Delta, Air France/KLM, British Airways, and Qatar (just to name a few of the partner airlines). This would basically mean being in a similar, if not identical, situation to American users who have virtually an endless list of partners where they can accumulate and companies where they can take advantage of status and related benefits.

In conclusion

If we went head-to-head among the companies of the various alliances, the following would surely emerge A ranking with Star Alliance and OneWorld clearly ahead of Skyteam carriers. Accumulate points on the Milan/Rome flight, to leverage for first class on Singapore Airlines or All Nippon Airlines, is something Skyteam cannot offer. Just as Qatar's QSuite and British Airways' new business class do not compare to what Delta or Garuda Indonesia offer.

Now we just have to wait for Lufthansa's decision and the Meloni government. If everything goes smoothly this time, in 2023 we will have a flag carrier in the hands of a solid company that is destined to do great things, just look at what it has "done" with Swiss, Austrian and Brussels.

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