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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.

On April 02, United will make its MileagePlus program a bit more interesting for holders of one of its co-branded credit cards – but practically useless for everyone else.

As a credit card holder, you will earn one more mile per USD on United flights (so 6 miles per USD as a basic member), but otherwise 2 miles less (so 3 miles per USD as a basic member). At Basic Economy fares, non-cardholders will no longer earn any miles at all as a basic member, and even cardholders will only earn 3 miles per USD.

At the same time, flight awards on United will be discounted by 10% for credit card holders.

All of this aims, of course, at forcing customers to use a credit card, which is a huge source of revenue for United, as it is for other U.S. carriers.

The small problem with that, however, is that United currently serves 73 countries outside the U.S., but only offers a credit card in 13 markets (eight of which are in Central America). Even if you wanted to play the game, members in key markets like Germany, Spain or China simply don’t have that option.

If you, as a frequent flyer, expect a certain level of planning security from your program, you are unfortunately quite misplaced with ITA.

In a somewhat peculiar manner of communication, ITA updated the program conditions of its VOLARE program without informing the members about it.

The program will be available only until March 30. After that, no more points can be collected, but until April 30, points can still be redeemed with program partners – but not with ITA itself!

And then? Presumably, the program will merge into Miles & More. Presumably, unused points will not be carried over. Presumably, most of the reward partners are no longer offered, as Miles & More does not operate on such a concept.

Presumably.

Until the end of the year, you can earn double reward and status miles on flights of SkyTeam member Vietnam Airlines in their Lotusmiles program – provided that the bookings are made online and on Fridays. On domestic flights, the double status miles only apply to existing status customers.

If you are planning trips to the region (or even with connections, e.g., to Australia), such flexibility is definitely worth it. This way, with a single round trip between Ho Chi Minh City and Paris or London in Business Class at the Flex fare, you can achieve Platinum status, which corresponds to SkyTeam Elite Plus status.

And if you already have enough miles in your account by May 31, you can also benefit from an awards promotion: All international award flights until the end of the year – if booked by May 31 – are reduced by 20% during off-peak periods, some (e.g. Milan) even by 40% and the flights Hanoi-Amsterdam even by 60%, which makes them a real bargain!

If, like Hyatt, you combine a revenue-based earning structure in your loyalty program with a fixed award chart, then regular award increases are unavoidable.

Hyatt last did this in their World of Hyatt in 2021, and we all know the developments in hotel prices since then. Thus, the price increases that will come into effect in May are quite steep and are being heavily criticised from all sides. However, the criticism should be more moderate if the accrual velocity were also taken into account correctly.

An unexpected side effect of this increase in award prices, however, is that the conversion to Frequent Flyer miles suddenly becomes more interesting, as nothing is changing there. Previously, you had to weigh up whether to use a Category 4 reward night or a short-haul reward flight with Air France or KLM, which you could get by transferring points into Virgin Atlantic’s Flying Club program. From May, for the same number of points, you will only get a Category 3 reward night – but still the same reward flight.

In uncertain times, the question always arises whether one should redeem miles or not.

While there are generally several reasons in favour – better availability during low-demand periods, higher flexibility for rebookings – this time it might look a bit different: Due to high fuel prices, most airlines have already increased their fuel surcharges – even though many have secured fuel at a fixed price for the entire year through so-called fuel hedging – and in most Frequent Flyer programs, you have to pay these surcharges for award flights. Since these surcharges mean that award flights are not always economically attractive even in normal times, it looks obviously even worse now.

The situation is different only in the US and some other programs, where award flights are exempt from these surcharges.