ITA Airways launched service in October 2021 after former Italian flag carrier Alitalia imploded.
I status matched to top-tier ITA elite status 2 years ago, and they keep sending me new top-tier elite membership cards. While the airline was ostensibly part of Skyteam, it was never fully integrated or accepted by other Skyteam carriers. There’s a reason Skyteam is a 3rd tier alliance…
Lufthansa has now received EU permission to buy the airline in exchange for divesting of some short-haul slots in Milan/LIN and additional competitor flights from Rome to European hubs. It will pay 325 million Euros this year for 41% of ITA and will purchase the rest of the airline next year. Following that, ITA will be the 5th Lufthansa Group network carrier, after Austrian, Brussels, Lufthansa, and Swiss. Rome will become the group’s 6th hub airport, after Brussels, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, and Zurich.
ITA will adopt Miles & More as its mileage currency and will aim to join the Star Alliance. That should open up some great redemption options in the future!
But in the meantime, burn those Virgin Atlantic points if you were hoping to use them for an Italian vacation:
What do you think of Lufthansa buying ITA?
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7 Comments On "ITA Airways Will Join Lufthansa Group, Star Alliance"
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You forgot eurowings
That’s not a network carrier.
Alitalia’s seating used to be the pits (small seat pitch/crammed feeling). Has ITA changed that?
Sadly not.
Amazing! Plus points viable? Finally a great option for Star Alliance late flight out of Italy.
When do you think we can start using star alliance points to redeem on ITA?
Booked ITA award on Virgin for a great price unmatched by other programs. Virgin allows transfering to members for a fixed $15 fee, so members can transfer Amex to virgin and then transfere Virgin to other Virgin members.
Question: what is sufficient mimimum connection time FCO to TLV and TLV to FCO? Would 2 hours be enough?