Transfer Membership rewards points into ITA Airways' Volare points, here's why you should NOT (yet) do it

AGG. Currently, the function has disappeared from the site dedicated to transferring points

The news was expected: after the partnerships for Centurion customers, is getting closer and closer to the Likely launch of American Express ITA Airways co-branded credit cards..

Now possible to transfer Membership rewards points into fly points

If you don't know what Membership Rewards points are, On TFC we have talked about this at length. In a nutshell, they are points that are accumulated through everyday spending and can in turn be converted into cash or points from other airline, hotel chain, and other loyalty programs.

From today, it is also possible to convert membership points into ITA Airways loyalty program points.. Each program has its own rules and conversion rate, ITA Airways inherited the same conversion rate that Alitalia's Millemiglia points had, which was 1:1.

This means that for every memebership point you transfer to Volare you will get one point in the ITA Airways loyalty program: we are obviously talking about basic points, not qualifying points, which are those that are instead obtained, at present, only by flying.

In recent months, Amex and ITA had launched the Ability to convert MR points into company vouchers. This was also a bad way to burn Membership points because of the little value that could be obtained in the conversion.

How much are Membership Rewards points worth

Before making any conversion to Volare, it is good to do the math in your pocket starting from A key point: 1,000 MR points can be converted to 4€., below this figure no conversion makes sense and as we have shown with our many reviews it is possible to get to convert 1000 membership points even to nearly 20€ if used with proper care.

Because you still don't have to convert MR points to fly points

The Volare program, we have written about it dozens and dozens of times, does not yet have a prize table And that means that as of today accumulated Flying points can only be used in cash and miles mode.

This means that fly points have a fixed value that results in a conversion rate of 1 euro for every 200 points, viz. 1000 Membership points transferred into Volare points are worth 5 euros, an increase in value compared to using it directly in the account statement, but still poorest possible among all other uses.

In the Millemiglia world it was possible to book a round-trip award ticket to New York in Magnifica class for 80k MM points, fly to Tokyo or South America cost 120k Millemiglia points + tax. Of course, that table was super convenient and had never been updated given Alitalia's perennial crisis.

Today this possibility does not yet exist, and to give an example, booking a round-trip ticket next January in the cheapest possible fare with ITA costs €2,525.75. As you can see, if I used my 116,160 points that I have on my Volare card in this way I would save the fantastic amount of 580.83€. 

Why you have to wait

Before making any risky moves, it is good to remember:

• The transfer is one-way, once points are sent, there is no going back
• Points CANNOT be used to book airline tickets with partners; the only function is cash and miles
• An award ticket booked with points is generally flexible and cancellable, in this case the rules of the purchased ticket apply instead.
• The sale to Lufthansa is coming soon, and it is likely that alliances and business arrangements will change, and this will also impact the loyalty program

Some examples on how to make better use of MR points

In recent months we have given dozens of examples, and as you can also see From our YouTube channel: is not only theory, but also practice.

It is possible to fly to the U.S. with Air France and KLM business class also starting at 68k Flying Blue points + tax, or a. booked round-trip ticket Using 102k MR points, which would instead be worth the pittance of €500 in Volare.

We saw how many users booked stays in the Maldives, Japan and around the world in dream hotels converting MR points to Hilton Honors program points by getting values even higher than $25 for 1000 MR points.

Lufthansa itself allows people to fly from Italy to the U.S. using only 55k Miles&More points for a round-trip ticket.

In conclusion

Fine the ability to convert points, but as of today it would be like exchanging gold coins (Membership Rewards points) for Turkish Liras. Sure. still money it is but the final value is definitely less.

• Flying