American Express ITA Airways divorce in sight? For the bank, everything is normal, but co-branded cards disappear from the site
In recent days, TFC's editorial staff approached American Express Italy for information regarding the future of the [...]
ITA Airways
Over the past few days, TFC's editorial staff has approached American Express Italy to get Information regarding the future of ITA Airways co-branded credit cards issued by American Express.
In this article:
The three products had been Launched on the Italian market in July 2023 and have since been claimable either through the Amex Italy website or through the ITA Airways website. (and for a short time through our website as well, ed.).
ITA Airways American Express cards, the official statement
"We continue to work closely with ITA Airways, but we have no further information to report at this time. Cardholders will be updated as news becomes available. For general information about the Volare program, please contact ITA Airways directly."
This is the communication we received on Tuesday afternoon, October 14, from the press office following our request for information on the matter. Our request stemmed precisely from the impending end of the Volare program and subsequent entry of ITA Airways into the Miles&More loyalty program.
Unable to apply for ITA Airways co-branded cards from American Express website
Since the launch of the status match by Lufthansa, several of our readers have taken advantage of the fast track possible offered by these cards. If with the Gold Card you become Plus, then FTL, with the Platinum Card you gain rightful access to the Premium club and through Status Match in a few days you become a Senator until February 2027-not a bad opportunity.
Today, however, several members of our community have reported to us how these three cards - Platinum, Gold and Basic - have disappeared from the bank's website, but not from that of ITA Airways, where they are still regularly claimable.
An entangled situation
Loyalty programs are revenue sources for airlines. Agreements with banks have, in fact, transformed the airlines in credit cards with wings.
ITA Airways has signed, as it is known, an exclusive agreement with American Express Italy, while Miles&More is historically "married" to Mastercard and, indeed, just at the beginning of October in Germany there was a switch to Deutsche Bank, which is now, for the domestic market, the official bank of the German group.
A "nice" coincidence
Just today, October 15, The first 2025 promotion of the Mastercard Gold Miles&More credit card has kicked off. present in the Italian market. Twelve months after the last promotion, the German loyalty program has returned to incentivizing the adoption of its Credit Card while, due to the transitional situation between Volare and Miles&More, no activity had been done during these first 10 months of 2025.
In conclusion
As I had written just in the past few days, the issue of co-branded cards is (or was) one of many open questions yet to be determined, and it would appear that something is moving, but not in the direction hoped for by the cardholders in question. And there is a risk that ITA cards will leave (too soon) my wallet and end up in my collection.
