ITA Airways is the new(ish) national airline of Italy, and the successor of Alitalia. While the airline belongs to the SkyTeam alliance for now (until Lufthansa completes its takeover), unfortunately there have been limited opportunities to actually redeem partner miles for travel on ITA, which has been quite frustrating.
In July 2023, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club rolled out award redemptions on ITA. Now as of November 2023, Air France-KLM Flying Blue has rolled out redemptions on ITA as well, giving more options for redeeming on Italy’s great airline. Let’s go over the two opportunities that are available.
In this post:
Redeem Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points on ITA Airways
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points can be used to redeem on ITA Airways directly through the Virgin Atlantic website.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points are easy to come by, as the program partners with major transferable points currencies, including American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou. Furthermore, we sometimes see transfer bonuses, which can be worth taking advantage of.
As a reminder, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club has a distance based award chart for SkyTeam partner flights, with pricing as follows (based on one-way travel for the entire journey):
As you can see, in business class across the Atlantic you can expect to pay:
- 75,000 points for a journey of 4,001-5,000 miles
- 85,000 points for a journey of 5,001-6,000 miles
- 100,00 points for a journey of 6,001-7,000 miles
Those aren’t necessarily the best prices on earth, but the good news is that award availability in ITA business class is quite good, and there are no carrier imposed surcharges on these awards.
Redeeming 75,000 Flying Club points plus $5.60 for a New York to Rome award is quite a good deal.
The same is true for redeeming 85,000 Flying Club points plus $5.60 for a Miami to Rome award.
Redeem Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles on ITA Airways
Air France-KLM Flying Blue points can now be used to redeem on ITA Airways directly through the Air France or KLM website.
Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles are also easy to come by, as the program partners with major transferable points currencies, including American Express Membership Rewards, Capital One, Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Citi ThankYou. Furthermore, we sometimes see transfer bonuses, which can be worth taking advantage of.
While Flying Blue doesn’t publish an award chart, pricing is competitive to what Flying Club charges. You can redeem 72,000 Flying Blue miles plus $10.10 for a New York to Rome award in business class.
You can redeem 87,500 Flying Blue miles plus $10.10 for a Miami to Rome award in business class.
As an intra-Europe example, you can redeem 20,000 Flying Blue miles plus $59.50 for a Frankfurt to Rome award in business class.
Another unique thing about Flying Blue is that you’re allowed a stopover on a one-way award. This means you could have a stopover in Rome enroute to another destination, all without paying more miles. That’s awesome.
Redeeming on ITA is a great opportunity
I’m really happy to see the increasing opportunities to redeem for travel on ITA Airways:
- I’ve reviewed ITA’s A350-900 business class and ITA’s A330-900neo business class, and these are among the best business class products across the Atlantic; the carrier’s lounge in Rome is quite good too
- Finding saver level award availability nonstop between the United States and Rome on other airlines is extremely challenging, so this is going to be your best option for that
- We often see 25-30% transfer bonuses to both Flying Blue and Flying Club, which can make this an even better deal
- It’s nice to see more award options across the Atlantic with no fuel surcharges whatsoever in either direction
Ultimately this is probably just a temporary opportunity. Lufthansa is purchasing ITA Airways, and at that point I suspect it will be possible to redeem Star Alliance miles for travel on the airline.
Bottom line
It’s now possible to redeem both Air France-KLM Flying Blue miles and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points for travel on ITA Airways. This can be done directly through the programs’ respective websites, and there are no fuel surcharges. ITA has an excellent business class, so if you’re looking to travel to Italy and beyond, definitely keep this in mind.
Any OMAAT readers plan on redeeming points on ITA?
I've been trying to book ITA Airways via AirFrance with SkyMiles, but it seems the partnership has already ended. They don't even show ITA on Air France anymore. Bummer! Does anyone know what airlines partner with ITA now?
This post is inaccurate. The number of points is calculated for each flight, not the route. If you add connecting flights, the price will always increase...regardless of the distance band.
Just booked a domestic LIN-BRI flight using Virgin. Cash fares were going for $200+ so this was useful. 30% transfer bonus from AMEX also so that was a cherry on top.
Flew on a Revenue ticket booked with ITA last month BRI-FCO-BLQ in Business but was unable to credit the miles to my FlyingBlue account.
It was impossible to book those flights on ITA metal using the FB portal. (It wanted to connect me at either CDG or AMS rather than FCO which would have wasted most of a day, plus a lot more $$ !).
I guess this inconvenience disappears if it is fully integrated into *A in due course.
In October I booked "business class" SOF-FCO using VA miles, transferred from AX.
I booked JFK-FCO using the recent UR bonus transfer to Virgin. However, there is zero availability from Italy back to the U.S. Which is strange, as there is almost daily availability on the JFK-FCO segment for nearly all times.
I'm not seeing any availability for ITA from JFK - FCO. When are you seeing this? Thanks
July 28-31
Aug 3-7; 10-14
Oct 6-9; 12-14
For example, on Jul 28 Flying Blue shows 2 tickets each on all three JFK-FCO flights for 72K points