Millemiglia program class action filed. Members seek damages for "lost" points
Users enrolled in the Millemiglia program want compensation for the loss of value and opportunity of points accumulated in Aliatalia's loyalty program
Alitalia
The year 2023 begins with the start of the class action lawsuit against Italia Loyalty S.p.A., owner of what remains of the old Alitalia's Millemiglia loyalty program. The announcement was made via social by Marco Di Martino, Aggressive frequent flyer of former Italian flag carrier which has brought together many other Millemiglia orphans in what promises to be a last-mile war.
Millemiglia what happened to it
In this article:
When Ita Airways was born on October 15, 2021. Volare, the new flag carrier's loyalty program, was also inaugurated.
When the European Union gave the green light for ITA's birth, it set stakes, Among the assets that the new carrier could not take over from the old Alitalia was precisely the loyalty program.
The data from the 5 mln members thus could not end up in the hands of the new company and Millemiglia ended up in a dead end waiting to find a new master, but to date all auctions have been unsuccessful.
In the meantime, however, ITA Airways did not sit idly by and Through a series of status match campaigns, she took back membership data without spending anything, a sign of the foresight of Brussels that has thus made an incredible assist to the new company saving them from having to take on the debt of points that tens of thousands of users had in their profiles.
Millemiglia today
Today, the Millemiglia program is unique worldwide, the only frequent flyer program, complete with elite levels, not to be linked to an airline. In fact, from October 16, 2021 to the present, Italia Loyalty SPA has tried hard to keep the program alive in hopes of the arrival of a potential buyer.
The most paradoxical thing is that in some ways Millemiglia, works even better than Volare, has more business partners starting with the Payback card and there is also the possibility of convert points from Nexi credit cards to Millemiglia points and as many as 4 partner airlines, while Volare stands at 1: Korean.
If today a Volare member is still unable to accumulate points when flying Air France or KLM, those who are Millemiglia members who also have MEA and AirEuropa among their partners can.
Expiring points
After the renewal of statuses and points in 2021 January 1, 2023 began a new collection and published a new rulebook. The reason is related to the Italian regulation of prize contests, which constrains the duration of point collections to a maximum of 36 months.
The program manager, however, has thought of everything and members They have until June to save the points still in their pockets, and it is precisely on the value of points that the class action filed with the Court of Rome is based.
The class action
In a nutshell, claimants, that is, those enrolled in the Millemiglia program, They complain about the plummeting value of points. If it was possible in the days of Alitalia Flying business class in New York with less than 80k MM points or in Japan at less than 120k points per passenger.
Since the roads parted, points have suffered a huge devaluation, and among the few uses that Italia Loyalty has managed to invent was the Last Minute voucher conversion. So if before as mentioned 80k points were worth a round trip business class ticket to the U.S. today with 86k you get a 250€ voucher, not even enough for a Linate/Palermo under Christmas.
The crux of the matter is all here, and several hundred members have self-taxed to support the appeal in the hope of getting a refund for lost points.
My opinion on this
I read the documentation and spoke with Marco di Martino, promoter of the Class Action. I am among the users who lost more than half a million points with the death of the Millemiglia program.
My last award ticket was in September 2021, With Etihad to Thailand. I had some other award flights scheduled, but with the divorce from ITA the tickets were cancelled and the points returned.
I decided not to join the class action, although I wish those who chose to do so to win the battle. Personally, however, I see little hope for victory, and there are basically 4 reasons for this:
- The decision not to take over Millemiglia was not ITA's choice, but an obligation demanded by Europe
- Alitalia went bankrupt and with it the loyalty program should have gone bankrupt, so it did not just because Millemiglia has, like all loyalty programs, always been in the black. And today it remains alive only in the hope of being sold and thus diminishing the hole of Alitalia's bankruptcy.
- The choice to renew the points and launch a new regulation falls to the organizer of the sweepstakes, and a loyalty program under Italian Law is a sweepstakes.
- Point devaluations are, unfortunately, part of the game And this was a huge devaluation of the points
Of course it "turns the boxes" in no small way to have burned the points laboriously accumulated, but even with the bankruptcy of other companies such as Sabena or Air Berlin, members were left with a fist in their hands and I do not see how the bankruptcy of Alitalia can instead open up different scenarios for Millemiglia members.
In conclusion
A group of members of Alitalia's loyalty program have filed a class action lawsuit against Italia Loyalty SPA, the company that owns the Millemiglia program. It will then be up to the Court of Rome to enter the merits and decide whether the users/applicants are entitled to a refund, or not.
