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As originally announced after the takeover by Lufthansa, ITA officially left the SkyTeam alliance on April 30. Joining Star is scheduled for early 2026.

Somewhat surprisingly, the announcement just before the end of the month came that all partnerships with SkyTeam companies in the Volare program will be maintained for the time being – which, by the way, applies in both directions. Status customers will even continue to receive status benefits with some partners.

This naturally leaves interesting options open, such as collecting miles for flights with Air France KLM and the Lufthansa Group in one program. The “problem” with that is that points from the Volare program can still only be redeemed in a non-transparent manner for Cash & Miles tickets on ITA flights.

Of course, one can speculate that Volare will merge into Miles & More next year anyway – but with the upcoming change to a dynamic reward pricing system at Miles & More, one hardly gains any transparency in the process.

Apparently, Aegean Airlines has come to a partnership with Emirates as if by a stroke of luck.

In certain cases, this partnership can surely provide added value for Miles+Bonus members, but it was hardly planned in the long term.

On the Aegean website, where collecting miles on flights is explained, you can actuallu still find the following information:

Concrete examples are always a good idea to explain something – but they should be adjusted occasionally if necessary!

While Emirates has always been restrictive in providing award seats in First Class to members of partner programs, it has now also tightened the conditions for Skywards members.

From now on, you must be an elite member to be able to use these awards. Regular customers should not really be affected by this, as you need so many points for these awards that you are usually a status customer anyway.

However, this measure clearly targets customers, especially in the USA, who accumulate large amounts of points through credit card programs and then convert them into Skywards points to use such awards. Often, these customers have, however, no loyalty towards Emirates at all – but often took these coveted seats to the detriment of the truly loyal customers in the past!

Of course, nowadays you can’t publicly say anything against sustainability anymore. But if it harms one’s own business too much, one is at least allowed to respond at the level of the loyalty program.

Deutsche Bahn has certainly contributed significantly to the decline in domestic air traffic in Germany, thanks in part also to its improved BahnBonus program. The public perception of domestic flights has deteriorated significantly, too.

Eurowings is now trying to counteract this: For all domestic flights booked by June 30 for July and August – except for flights to Sylt – you will receive triple miles with Miles & More. Due to the low absolute mileage credits, this is more of a symbolic gesture – but this symbolism is definitely fully realised here!

Jetblue and United have confirmed their intention to work closely together. In an initial step, a partnership at the level of the Frequent Flyer programs TrueBlue and MileagePlus will certainly be seen.

In the medium term, the further development also depends on the authorities, but a complete takeover of Jetblue by United is currently not to be excluded and thus the complete disappearance of the brand is also possible.

While some would probably miss the Jetblue brand, its TrueBlue program has never really met expectations. And for those who get along well with the program, the consolation is that such a potential merger is not on the agenda for tomorrow.

Is GarudaMiles the best frequent flyer program? Certainly not, as it has many weaknesses, such as a segment-based reward pricing that often makes the rewards overpriced.

But like most programs, it can still be an option under certain circumstances. And one of these circumstances is rather unexpected.

At the end of February, the program launched a partnership with Emirates, which complemented the long-standing partnership with Etihad. But now it got even better: The program now also has a partnership with Qatar Airways.

For all customers who enjoy traveling with these three quality carriers but don’t want to commit loyally to one of them, GarudaMiles now offers the clever option to pool miles with these companies in one program, giving them a certain sense like that.

Of course, Garuda also maintains Frequent Flyer partnerships with all SkyTeam airlines.

Vietnam Airlines’ Lotusmiles program is turning 30 years old.

On this occasion, all rewards on international Vietnam Airlines flights are discounted by at least 30% during off-peak periods – on some routes even by 50 or 75%. These bookings must be made by May 31 for flights until December 31.

At the same time, the program increased award prices as of April 01 though – only slightly on Vietnam Airlines, but catastrophically on partner airlines. Since awards in Business Class were already quite expensive before on Vietnam Airlines, they are not really interesting, even with a 30% discount.

However, things look differently in Economy Class, where you can now fly roundtrip from Vietnam to Australia for 56,000 miles or to Europe for 63,000 miles. And if you choose, for example, the new Hanoi-Milan route, the roundtrip with a 75% discount costs only 22,500 miles in Economy Class (or 80,000 miles in Business Class).

Flight schedules of airlines are a rather complex matter and are difficult to adjust at short notice – and even more so to the daily whims of a US president.

Airlines worldwide, however, are facing more or less drastic declines in bookings for flights to the US, which for many represent the most profitable business sector. And so, despite the upcoming peak travel season, one sees promotions in frequent flyer programs that would be unthinkable in normal times.

As such, Air Canada offered 6,000 bonus miles to its Aeroplan members for new bookings for flights to the USA over a period of 14 days – for flights until December 15.

ITA is a bit more optimistic and has a double miles promotion in its Volare program for flights to and from the US  “only” for flights from May 04 to June 30, for bookings made by April 30.

And this is surely just the beginning, as airlines and hotels will lose patience in the coming weeks…

To achieve Gold or Platinum status in Accor’s ALL program, you normally need 30 or 60 nights per year, respectively.

Thanks to a new partnership, however, just one night is now enough – though not in a hotel, but rather on a train. Accor has recently invested in the luxury train operator Orient Express, which offers various itineraries within Italy.

ALL members now receive not only points, but also, as permanent offer, direct Gold status for bookings in the Deluxe cabin (which you probably can’t really call 2nd class…) and Platinum status for bookings in a suite.

The eight different routes each last 1 or 2 nights, but they cost no less than 30 or 60 nights in an upscale mid-range hotel…

But even if you use more “normal” trains, you now have the opportunity to collect frequent flyer miles across Europe.

Thanks to a new partnership between Air France KLM’s Flying Blue program and the booking platform Trip.com, you now earn one mile per EUR spent on train bookings through Trip.com.

The offer applies to over 1,000 railway companies, with Trip.com promising the best prices. And the offer applies not only to long train journeys but also to regional routes or special operators like Heathrow Express.

In parallel to the Flying Blue miles, you can also collect Trip Coins in the Trip.com Rewards program.