ITA Airways, Lazzerini confirms, "We will join Star Alliance, Volare remains and there will never be an award chart"
The CEO of ITA Airways talks about the future of the Volare loyalty program. Numbers, targets and award tickets: everything you need to know ahead of the sale to Lufthansa
ITA Airways
SkyTeam
On the sidelines of the day-long celebration that saw the the presentation of the new lounge at Fiumicino and the debut of the new A320neo dedicated to Carolina Kostner we had the opportunity to speak with ITA Airways' #1, CEO Lazzerini.
In this article:
As always while real journalists were interested in the performance of the Italian company which, by the CEO's own admission, In Q1 2023 produced numbers never seen before which brought a positive balance to the company's coffers of 80k euros per day, totaling nearly 3M euros in the historically most difficult period for airlines.
We at TFC were the only ones interested in the future of the Flying program.
Quota 1.1M members
Membership numbers are steadily growing, the one million member mark was passed last March, and now we are rapidly approaching 1.1M. The most interesting figure, is that of active members. As Lazzerini rightly pointed out, the total number of members does not matter, although to be fair with that data the company could still monetize.
According to the CEO's statements, 40% would be the active users. "Active we mean passengers who fly and therefore use our card."
It has not been clarified what active means other than "they are passengers who fly regularly not users who have signed up and made a flight." Whereas. Flying is just over a year old I would tend to believe that the figure refers to registered users who have flown at least a couple of routes.
It will be switched to Star Alliance
Also present at the chat with Lazzerini was the German correspondent of one of Germany's most widely circulated newspapers, the Frankfurter Allgemeine, who asked, of all the questions also the most impertinent and absolutely the most apt in view of the upcoming announcement of the sale to Lufthansa.
"But when the sale takes place will you remain at the head of the group?" Lazzerini's response was the most classic No comment translated into "We are working according to our business plan, it is up to the MEF on the question of the sale, and what happens next has not yet been discussed."
Lazzerini, however, confirmed that there will be Leaving Skyteam and joining Star Alliance. and that it will take about a year before all the wheels fall into place in the new alliance. Judging by how long it has taken to Virgin Atlantic to join Skyteam I would say that this move can be completed in less time.
Flying will remain the loyalty program
Lazzerini has made it clear that no merger will take place with Miles&More, but that Volare will remain ITA Airways' loyalty program.
Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss queues.
I believe that this may be a half-truth. In the first phase, that is, when LH will have only a minority share it is possible for the two systems to remain separate, but it is inevitable at the time when the German group will own to 100% that everything will flow into the card that unites all the companies in the group.
Flying a lame program
Those who read TFC know very well that we we are people who live for points And to maximize the return on loyalty. From the first stirrings of the new Flying loyalty program we have always been very critical of the operations done. ITA Airways has always "defended" itself by declaring itself a start-up that has worked miracles, and it is undeniable that this is so, but it is also true that one should not hide behind bureaucratic quibbles, the company was born from the ashes of Alitalia and not completely from scratch.
As of today, ITA Airways is a "mock" member of Skyteam. Impossible to get points by flying with other carriers (except Korean), impossible for passengers with Volare status to get Elite+ benefits from other Skyteam carriers, which is reciprocal if you consider that AF or KLM passengers do not have access to, for example, the lounge at Linate.
Unable to credit ITA flights to other loyalty cards and vice versa. These are just some of the shortcomings that the Volare program has not resolved more than 18 months after its debut on October 15, 2021.
There will be no award chart
All frequent flyers know that points accumulated from flights and partners in various programs are collected for one reason only: Redeem a prize ticket.
In this regard, Lazzerini put a pin in the key piece: "ITA Airways will never have an award chart, our customers can use as they are doing only the cash&mile option."
ITA's choice, therefore, is to be the only company in the world to have this approach, a way that in my humble opinion will make Flying (almost) more useless than supermarket point collection.
I say almost because fortunately ITA Airways I don't think will be able to change the rules of the game in Star Alliance, ITA will then be forced to activate at the very least an award chart for flights with alliance partners. Conversely, I am curious to see if and how, once it joins SA, ITA will open award seats for customers of different airlines.
Why it is a short-sighted strategy
We have been saying this all along the "average" Italian traveler has no understanding of point collection in frequent flyer programs, and I think ITA plays precisely on this lack of knowledge.
"Alitalia," Lazzerini explains, "had a lousy schedule and there were very few award seats on board the planes, but we put all the seats available. E if a traveler wants to book the last free seat by paying entirely with points he will be able to do so, of course it will cost him a million or more points, but he will be able to do so."
If ITA's coffers in the short run will thank, in the long run this will be a failing strategy for simple reasons:
- True frequent flyers, as soon as they can (because as of today it is IMPOSSIBLE). Will credit ITA flights on other loyalty programs. This move will produce a cost to Volare's coffers to destination programs
- Same situation in reverse, I doubt that those who fly with other carriers can decide to crediting their flights on the Volare card
- The same will be true with commercial agreements with partners. Those who aim to fly using points will choose to Associate car rental, hotel or other initiatives such as shopping with a card other than Volare and this will produce a shortfall for the coffers of the loyalty program, which instead makes money in selling the points to partners who in turn "give" them to customers.
- Fewer users will be interested in owning ITA Airways co-branded credit cards.. If it is not possible to know how many points are needed for a ticket, no one is going to tie his or her hands to a one-size-fits-all program. And that will bring less money into ITA's coffers.
- Having fewer active enrollees and lower revenues, the Volare program will be a smaller asset and of less value than that of other loyalty programs
- Last but not least, when there is an award chart for partner flights there will be this situation. A Rome Tokyo flight with ITA in business class will cost 3500€ cash or 700 thousand Volare points, and the same flight via Frankfurt or Singapore will cost 180 thousand points. Translated FF Volare people will use the points to book seats in other companies generating a cost to the Italian company's coffers.
In conclusion
We will just have to wait and see what happens to the people at the top of ITA today. and its divisions, to see if this will be the case or changes at the top will also lead to new strategies. The program Lufthansa's Miles&More in 2024 will experience a real revolution, with new rules for obtaining status and accumulating points.
However, if we talk about award tickets, there is an award chart that allows you to also grab First Class seats. And there are the monthly offers that Every 30 days make discounted award tickets available to passengers. For example, it is often possible to detach a coupon a/r in business class to the U.S. for only 55k M&M points.
