ITA Volare (SkyTeam Elite Plus) Status Match Is Back For New Applications Through April 15, 2022
The “new” Italian airline ITA (formerly Alitalia) that started its operations last October and is also a SkyTeam member has returned the status match promotion to its Volare frequent flier program.
This is the second time that ITA offers a status match though in the first round it was rather difficult to sign up due to website issues and to this day for some (technical?) reasons many SkyTeam partners don’t even recognize ITA Volare in their systems.
Participating in this status match is an excellent opportunity to get Skyteam Elite Plus status which is usually hard to come by as matches by SkyTeam carriers are extremely rare.
You can access the status match landing page of ITA Volare here.
Sign up now to our new program Volare. If you already belong to a loyalty program of one of the 24 selected airlines*, you can sign up to the Status Match campaign and request recognition of your status in our program by 15 April.
Complete the Status Match dedicated request form which you can find in your personal area by entering your personal data and uploading a legible copy of your Frequent Flyer program card of origin (digital or physical) and a copy of your valid1 identity card (pdf, jpg format)
Your request to match your membership status will be examined and sent to you via email to confirm if your status has been recognized by 15/05/2022.
You first have to sign up for Volare which at least works much better now than it has in the past when they launched the website while it wasn’t even working properly (at least in the English version).
The status match is available to members of the following competing programs:
The initiative is for Members belonging to the premium tier of the Frequent Flyer Programs of the following selected airlines*:
- Aerolíneas Argentinas – Aerolíneas Plus
- Air Europa – Suma
- Alitalia – Millemiglia
- Air France/KLM – Flying Blue
- American Airlines – Aadvantage
- ANA – Mileage club
- British Airways – Executive Club
- Czech Airlines – OK Plus
- Delta Airlines – SkyMiles
- EL Al – Matmid
- Emirates – Skywards
- Iberia – Iberia Plus
- Korean Air – SKYPASS
- Lufthansa – Miles and More
- Middle East Airlines – Cedar Miles
- Qatar Airways – Privilege Club
- Royal Jordanian – Royal Club
- Saudia – Alfursan
- Singapore Airlines -– KrisFlyer
- Swiss Air – Miles & More
- TAP – Miles & Go
- Tarom – Sky Team
- Turkish Airlines – Miles & Smile
- United Airlines – Mileage plus
I’m extremely surprised that they even match fellow SkyTeam carriers which is rather irregular these days for any of the other programs in the industry. They usually don’t match within the same alliance.
Membership of the exclusive Club recognized under the present Status Match campaign will be valid for one (1) calendar year, starting from 15/04/2022.
The new status will be recognized in the ITA Airways systems as soon as the matching process is completed and the Members will receive a service communication via email confirming this recognition by 15/05/2022 depending on the time necessary to complete the matching request.
According to the website, if the status is not matched, you will receive an email of negative result no later than 15/05/2022 in which it will be specified which guidelines indicated in the regulation have not been followed.
The new status will be available and visible to Members as soon as the matching procedure is completed and no later than 15/05/2022.
A digital membership card will be available and visible to Members as soon as the matching procedure is completed and no later than 15/05/2022.
I decided to test this and submitted my Lufthansa Miles&More Senator status to match to Volare.
I got several error messages when trying to attach images of my passport and membership card despite the size limit of each file being said to be 5MB. Only after I reduced the file below 1MB would it accept the transmission. YMMV.
In the end, it worked and I promptly received a confirmation email:
A few hours after this I received a formal confirmation that my match has been accepted:
Dear Sebastian
We are pleased to inform you that your request for a Status Match for the ITA Airways Volare loyalty program has been accepted.
In the next few days we will send you all the details regarding the services of your new club.
Thank you for having chosen to take part in our Volare program, we look forward to seeing you on board an ITA Airways flights soon!
Yours sincerely,Volare ProgramStatus Match Team
This was more efficient than I imagined. The status itself hasn’t been changed yet but since I received a confirmation I’m expecting this to happen in the coming weeks.
These are the different Volare Tiers and associated Benefits:
Smart level :
- access by registering for the Program and accumulating Points for each expense relating to goods / services offered by ITA;
- access to a wide network of commercial partnerships for the accreditation and use of Points, as communicated from time to time pursuant to the previous article 5;
- purchase of ancillary services through Points.
Plus Level :
- benefits of the Smart level ;
- priority waiting list;
- free ancillary services;
- dedicated customer service;
- check-in business.
Premium Level :
- benefits of the Plus level ;
- lounge access ;
- 24/7 dedicated customer service;
- priority boarding;
- dedicated on-board welcome;
Livello Executive:
- benefits of the Premium level ;
- golf equipment included;
- lounge access + guests;
- dedicated assistance 24/7;
- free food and drink;
- invitations to exclusive events;
- dedicated reception.
The website is still rather difficult to navigate and it’s very hard to find specific information. Gotta wonder who designed this.
And then there is another problem, namely that many SkyTeam partner airlines don’t know what ITA / Volare is and they don’t recognize the number in their systems.
ITA Airways Volare Program: Issues With Membership Not Being Recognized By SkyTeam Airlines
For example, Delta Air Lines agents both at reservations or at the airport also don’t have an option of adding the ITA number to the reservation, leading to the program being basically obsolete for Delta travel.
I wrote about this in January and apparently it’s still a persistent problem. Hopefully, they get this under control sometime soon. There is really no excuse for that.
There have been many rumors such as that ITA will soon be called Alitalia again after they bought the rights to the old name. Also, a takeover by Lufthansa was discussed. We shall see what’s coming out of all this.
Having the status-match making a return is great and gives the opportunity to finally have SkyTeam status again. Of course, the benefit relies on partners actually recognizing the program.
Conclusion
The Volare Status match is back and available to members of select competitors until April 15th 2022.
The ITA’s page of Valero is very light on information beyond that the program is revenue-based (you earn points based on the Euros spent), but the T&Cs reveal the benefits of each level. Unfortunately, it is unclear what level of spent is required to reach and retain each.
This Alitalia to ITA back to Alitalia is very messy and challenging to see what benefits this Volare match could offer beyond possible other matches in the future. I was briefly an elite member at Alitalia’s MilleMiglia due to a similar offer in the past.
I decided to go with Air France – KLM Flying Blue due to better stability and the ability to burn miles by booking award tickets online with all partner airlines. I also have miles with Delta SkyMiles that come in handy at times.
These are the entire Terms & Conditions for this match:
From 15 March to 15 April 2022, Members can participate in the status match campaign by registering for the ITA Airways Volare program (if they are not already Members) and request for us to match their current status within another loyalty program so they can access one of our exclusive clubs.
The status match campaign can only be joined by Members belonging to premium tiers (tiers not accessible simply by signing up to the program, e.g. Ulisse, Freccia Alata, Freccia Alata Plus, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Frequent Traveller, Senator, HON Circle). Those who already partecipated to the previous version of the Status Match campaign and who were granted access to one of our exclusive clubs based on the requirements, will not be able to participate to this new Status Match campaign.
The new status will be recognized in the ITA Airways systems as soon as the matching process is completed and the Members will receive a service communication via email confirming this recognition by 15/05/2022 depending on the time necessary to complete the matching request .
If the status is not matched, you will receive an email of negative result no later than 15/05/2022 in which it will be specified which guidelines indicated in the regulation have not been followed.
The new status will be available and visible to Members as soon as the matching procedure is completed and no later than 15/05/2022.
The digital card will be available and visible to Members as soon as the matching procedure is completed and no later than 15/05/2022.
Membership of the exclusive Club recognized under the present Status Match campaign will be valid for one (1) calendar year, starting from 15/04/2022.
Any requests that do not include all the required data or that are accompanied by illegible documentation will not be processed
