Millemiglia agony over: expired points, cards without benefits and goodbye Amex Alitalia
Almost 2 years after the bankruptcy of Alitalia and the birth of ITA Airways, we can say that even [...]
Alitalia
Almost 2 years after the bankruptcy of Alitalia and since the birth of ITA Airways we can say that even the old program Millemiglia, renamed My Miglia, has reached the closing credits.
All extensions expired
In this article:
The last extension expired on September 15. which allowed those who still had points to save them from oblivion. As of today, Sept. 20, there is no sign of a further parachute for the stoic point accumulators of Alitalia's old loyalty program, which, for better or worse, has given so many award tickets to thousands of travelers.
The best bonuses
However, the recovered points will be short-lived since they will expire on January 31 next year.
Personally, I don't know of anyone who has told me that they have continued to accumulate points on this program instead of on other more solid and benefit-rich cards. All friends and readers told me that they aimed to save the account with minimal effort and to have used the points in some way: from Lastminute vouchers, To the transfer to Flying Blue and a lucky few are also managed to redeem prize tickets.
Cards also expired at the beginning of the year., with the vast majority of users demoted to the basic level, only to be promoted Ulysses with the accumulation of the handful of points needed to save the expiring account.
Class action stopped at the post
More than 9 months after When the class action was filed, moved by a hundred or so diehards, did not make much progress. The transition from Millemiglia to Fly has left a bitter taste in the mouths of tens of thousands of travelers from Italy and beyond, and certainly this agony does not benefit the popularity of the frequent flyer world in the Italian market.
No one wanted to buy Millemiglia
Put up for sale Auctioned a first time at a minimum price of 50 million euros found no one willing to invest in getting hold of the data of about 5 million users, even though the "active" ones were little more than 1/5.
Subsequent enchantments, at a reduced price, have not led to any developments, and to date program is still an asset of the failed Alitalia. If between 2020 and 2021, that is, at the height of the pandemic, it had produced over 10M in profit, 2022, the first year without the airline anymore, the company My Miles spa (100% subsidiary of Alitalia spa) closed with 6M losses against 16M in sales.
Goodbye Amex Alitalia
As of tomorrow, Sept. 21, barring any last-minute changes, the'mailing by American Express of the new credit cards to cardholders who still have one of the old Alitalia co-branded cards in their wallets.. From 2021, these cards will no longer accumulate Millimiglia points, but classic Membership Rewards points, though. continued to be issued in the old graphic to active customers.
Thus, the relationship with Amex and the Alitalia brand permanently ceases must permanently disappear from credit cards, which is why cards devoid of the old Italian company's brand will be sent out pending the end of life communicated in recent months to cardholders.
Recently released were the new American Express ITA Airways cards, but many travelers still prefer (rightly) the standard Amex credit cards.
In conclusion
Of course I was cancelled the award tickets I had already booked, certainly all the actors in this tragedy could have behaved better, but with the combination of Alitalia's bankruptcy and Brussels' absolute ban on the purchase of FF to ITA it was difficult to combine anything better than what was done.