With 10 days’ notice, ITA confirmed that Miles & More would be their new Frequent Flyer program starting April 01.

While this was no longer really surprising, the manner in which it happened was all the more so. Of course, one expected a somewhat orderly takeover – but it was everything but that!

VOLARE members must register as new members in Miles & More, and the VOLARE history simply does not matter: Outstanding miles were not transferred, elite status was not honoured and status miles collected in the current year became worthless.

It looks like Lufthansa simply “forgot” to factor in these costs when they made a takeover offer for ITA…

By the way, you can still redeem outstanding points with VOLARE for a flight voucher until June 30 or for rewards with non-air partners until April 30.

It is always commendable when an airline recognises and corrects its mistakes relatively quickly.

When Air India relaunched its program under the name Maharaja Club at the end of 2024, it was clear that more value was placed on a nice exterior than on the content.

The improvements now announced are a step in the right direction – notably the reduction in most award prices on Air India flights – but major weaknesses in the program, such as the completely inflated award prices on Star Alliance partners, remain.

Like that, the program remains, unfortunately, only relevant in principle thanks to the local program partners in India and if the only goal is to use miles for award flights within India.

More and more airlines now have basic fares in their offerings to be more competitive against low-cost carriers. And the question arises as to how to integrate them into the logic of Frequent Flyer programs.

A recent example of an airline that is probably not going the right way here is American Airlines: In addition to an already reduced mileage credit, AAdvantage members will no longer be able to use status benefits on American Airlines flights when they use the Economy Basic Fare starting May 18.

So why not choose straight away Frontier Airlines or Spirit Airlines?

Since the end of March, Transavia has taken over all domestic flights from Air France from Paris Orly – and frequent flyers should probably make their way to Charles de Gaulle to continue flying with Air France.

Not only have frequencies been massively reduced, but frequent flyers also suffer from a worse offering.
Only Flying Blue members earn miles and status points on Transavia flights (but significantly fewer than on Air France flights), not members of other SkyTeam programs.

In May, Transavia will open its own lounge in Orly, which, however, not only looks spartan, but is also open to Flying Blue members holding at least Platinum status only. Unlike Air France lounges, which can be accessed already with Gold status – or the SkyTeam Elite Plus status in partner programs.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has announced that it would fundamentally change the rules in the national credit card market starting from October 01. This includes, among other things, the reduction of interbank fees.

These finance, among other things, the generous offers of credit cards that one finds in Australian Frequent Flyer and other loyalty programs, making Australia one of the most lucrative markets for credit card providers worldwide. These will soon be a thing of the past, and based on the experience of other countries where these fees have already been reduced, two developments can be expected that will benefit frequent flyers.

On one hand, credit card offers will have to reinvent themselves and generate added value beyond collecting miles. For non-frequent flyers who merely process large sums through credit cards but use most of the reward seats, the offer will be less attractive.

On the other hand, programs can no longer rely solely on credit card revenue, but must return to their true “raison d’être” – creating genuine customer loyalty. As this development was foreseeable, it is a process that has already begun at Qantas, for example.