Alitalia still offering SkyTeam status match to BA Silver and Gold

Links on Head for Points may pay us an affiliate commission. A list of partners is here.

Given that it is two months since I first mentioned this, it is worth a reminder. Alitalia is currently offering a status match to British Airways Executive Club Gold members as well as other top-tier and middle-tier status holders with other airlines.

Full details can be found on the Alitalia website here.

This is, presumably, part of the relaunch of the airline under the pseudo control of Etihad. Etihad has recently outlined its plans for turning around the struggling carrier and a willingness to match status cards from other airlines – a technique which Etihad Guest has used aggressively – is a way of getting people to try it.

Alitalia card

The scheme

The Alitalia frequent flyer scheme is called MilleMiglia. There are four elite levels which are outlined here.

As a BA Gold, you should expect to be matched to Freccia Alata Plus. This level is equivalent to SkyTeam Elite Plus which is the equivalent of oneworld Emerald.

As a BA Silver, you should expect to be matched to Freccia Alata. This is ALSO considered to be SkyTeam Elite Plus. This means that you would get worldwide lounge access with SkyTeam except on US domestic flights with Delta.

Why you should do this even if you never fly Alitalia

Alitalia is now a member of two airline alliances.

The formal membership is with SkyTeam. Your Freccia Alata Plus card would get you top tier privileges, including lounge access (except on domestic Delta flights in the US, I think), with the following airlines:

Aeroflot
AerolineasArgentinas
AeroMexico
AirEuropa
Air France
Alitalia
China Airlines
China Eastern
China Southern
Czech Airlines
Delta
Garuda Indonesia
Kenya Airways
KLM
Korean Air
MEA
Saudia
Tarom
Vietnam Airlines
Xiamen Air

Alitalia is also a member of Etihad Airways Partners. This is not yet finalised, but the eventual plan is that a status holder with any of the following airlines – all of which have received equity investment from Etihad – will have reciprocal privileges with the others.

Etihad
Jet Airways
airberlin
Air Serbia
Air Seychelles
Etihad Regional

Alitalia also has partnerships with GOL, Malaysia and Qantas but I’m not sure if they offer any benefits for Alitalia top tier cardholders.

There is another reason to get a match. You never know when there might be an opportunity to match your Alitalia status to a different Star Alliance or oneworld airline!

How do I get a status match?

You need to email a scan of your British Airways Gold card and your MilleMiglia account number, so you need to open an account first, to statusmatchmillemiglia@alitalia.com.

Here are the rules:

You have until December 2015 to ask for a match

The match will last until March 2016 UNLESS your existing status card shows an expiry date beyond March 2016. If it does, your matched card will be issued until March 2017.

ANY elite status card from an airline which is not part of the SkyTeam alliance will be accepted

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards. Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios? Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

British Airways and Avios, SkyTeam alliance partners

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Jason says:

4 Sep4 September 07:56

OT: Does anyone know if the rules regarding entering the U.S. have changed, recently, regarding the expiry of your passport. It used to be you had to have 6 months left at the endoif your trip to enter the U.S , apparently it’s been changed to ” as long as your passport is valid at the end of your trip” for British passport holders.
Does anyone know if that’s the case?
- Jason says:
  
  4 Sep4 September 09:12
  
  Thanks Paul.
Shayele says:

4 Sep4 September 08:43

Same here have given in my card about six times each time get a reply that it is illegible. Kinda getting bored of their feet shuffling attitude.
RedDom says:

4 Sep4 September 08:56

My BAEC end date is Nov, so my card is valid to end of December. Clearly I’d like to wait until (if) I get a new card to get the extended match. Does anyone know when the BAEC send out new cards, or update the image on the website so i can use the new expiry, I fear its going to be too close to the december deadline to do this.
- Susan says:
  
  4 Sep4 September 09:18
  
  There’s no benefit in waiting as the match is for a specific period – to march 2016 if your matching card expires before this and March 17 if it’s afterwards. OH and I both matched- him using CX gold which expired a week after application, me using TK gold expiring next April. Now to see who’ll match from Alitalia 😉
  - RedDom says:
    
    4 Sep4 September 09:46
    
    my current card is valid to dec15, so would match to Mar 16. My new card when it arrives (I’ve not qualified yet) will be valid to Dec16, and so would match to Mar 17. Obviously I’d like the latter… just not sure when my new BAEC card would be dispatched
CV3V says:

4 Sep4 September 09:42

Got my card 2 weeks after applying, sent a pic of my Air Berlin card. Not much chance of me ever using Alitalia, although there is a widerange of options with Skyteam.

Also note that the Air Berlin status match has/is changing and being restricted to residents of Germany and Austria. Air Berlin status is rather useful – oneworld status and Etihad status priviliges, all on one card. Likewise with Qantas and Emirates (although the arrangement with Emirates is a bit more restricted).
- idrive says:
  
  4 Sep4 September 10:55
  
  this membership limit is a problem now. how do we sort it out?
Kay says:

4 Sep4 September 10:14

After submitting again for the second time, I had to check on the website to realise that the status match has been granted. Still did not receive any mail or notification though.
K. says:

4 Sep4 September 11:35

Took me about 4 attempts to have them match me. They kept rejecting my scanned card for some reason then when I received no reply on the 5th attempt about 3-4 weeks laters (just last week) I received my status match card until 2017 in the post!
- james alexander says:
  
  5 Sep5 September 01:12
  
  Similar position to those being kept waiting – Am BAEC Gold and have now sent my card over the last 8 weeks to Alitalia FIVE times and am still waiting…. very Italian ! Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow……..(one reason I gave up flying with them when I was based in London) …… appalling customer service and attitude…….Not holding my breath
AH says:

4 Sep4 September 11:47

Hi – just to mention that they also match to Bronze – Ulisse level.

It took me almost 2 months, endless emails to them with my scanned BA card, with annoying generic responses back from the company they have outsourced this to – in the end, I wrote to Alitalia on Twitter and it got solved in 1 week. So those of you waiting, get on twitter!
Colin JE says:

4 Sep4 September 11:50

Applied on 1st July, got the status email on 17th July. Matched my AirBerlin Gold (itself a status match from Virgin) to Frecchia Alata, expiring March 2017. The cards arrived a couple of weeks later. No upgrade vouchers so I guess that for the next level up only?

One question: for lounge access to other Skyteam lounges the Alitalia website says you need to have booked via Alitalia. Or do you really only need to have the Alitalia FF number on your boarding card? Would be interested to hear others’ experiences about getting lounge access using the Frecchia Alata status.
- Rob says:
  
  4 Sep4 September 13:16
  
  Find that hard to believe given that the Alitalia website does not sell Skyteam wide flights!
- Rob says:
  
  4 Sep4 September 13:19
  
  Would be interested to know peoples’s experiences as well – is adding the MileMiglia membership number to Star Alliance booking enough for access to partner lounges so it shows your status on the boarding card, or do lounges need to see the physical card?
  
  Also how does it work for lounge access when flying Etihad?
- Bob says:
  
  4 Sep4 September 13:32
  
  If you are Skyteam Elite Plus member, regardless which Skyteam frequent flyer programme, you should have lounge access if you are travelling on a Skyteam operated flight:
  http://www.skyteam.com/en/Why-SkyTeam/SkyTeam-Lounges/Lounge-Access-Policy/
  So, AZ number on boarding pass should be sufficient.
  
  However, I am wondering what would happen if one is for example travelling with KLM, with a Flying blue number (no status) on the boarding pass (in order to collect mileage on Flying blue), could one still use the physical AZ-Freccia Alata card to obtain Sky Priority and Lounge Access?
  I was told by a good friend that the card plus boarding pass would be sufficient for lounge access but the lounge agents might change the FF-number in the booking into the number of the physical card. Moreover, I was told that the Y-boarding pass without an Elite plus number on it will not get you through Sky Priority, even with the physical Freccia Alata card also present.