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NEW: Match your British Airways status to SkyTeam, including top tier

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There is a great opportunity this month to get status in the SkyTeam airline alliance by matching your British Airways Executive Club status.

This is due to the launch of ITA Airways, the replacement airline for the bankrupt Alitalia, and its new frequent flyer programme Volare.

If you are successfully matched, your new SkyTeam status will begin on 1st January and run for the whole of 2022.

Match your British Airways to SkyTeam with ITA

This opportunity has been around for a couple of weeks but it didn’t seem hugely exciting. However, last Friday it was announced that ITA Airways was taking Alitalia’s place in the SkyTeam airline alliance.

This suddenly made the match a lot more interesting.

It means that if you match your British Airways status to ITA Airways, your status will get you benefits with:

  • Aeroflot
  • Aerolineas Argentinas
  • AeroMexico
  • Air Europa
  • Air France
  • China Airlines
  • China Eastern
  • Czech Airlines
  • Delta
  • Garuda Indonesia
  • ITA Airways
  • Kenya Airways
  • KLM
  • Korean Air
  • MEA
  • Saudia
  • TAROM
  • Vietnam Airlines
  • Xiamen Air
ITA status match

How does the ITA status match work?

Full details are here. The match process itself is easy, but you won’t get your status immediately.

ITA’s frequent flyer programme will be called Volare. The details are here. However:

  • the programme does not launch until 1st January 2022
  • you cannot redeem points until 1st March 2022

You can earn points immediately if you fly with Volare – in fact, there is a 10,000 points bonus available if you register by 15th November and complete two one-way flights or one return flight on Volare by 31st December. These points will not be credited until the programme launches on 1st January.

What does this mean for the timing of the status match?

The status match application process runs until 30th November 2021.

You will contacted by 31st December 2021 with information on whether your match has been successful.

If it has, your status will run from 1st January 2022 until 31st December 2022.

How I do apply for the ITA status match?

You can apply for your match here.

It will literally take you 1 minute to do. Once you’ve registered for Volare, all it wants you to email is a copy of your British Airways Executive Club status card (an online version is accepted) and a copy of your passport.

There is no requirement to send information on your flight history or to book any flights with ITA Airways.

Match your British Airways to SkyTeam with ITA

Which airlines are being matched?

It isn’t just British Airways status which is being matched. You can also apply if you have status with:

  • Alitalia – MilleMiglia 
  • Air France/KLM – Flying Blue
  • American Airlines – AAdvantage 
  • Delta Airlines – SkyMiles 
  • Emirates – Skywards 
  • Iberia – Iberia Plus 
  • Lufthansa – Miles and More 
  • Singapore Airlines – KrisFlyer 
  • Turkish Airways – Miles & Smile 
  • United Airlines – MileagePlus 

Will I get SkyTeam benefits from 1st January 2022?

It seems so, yes.

The SkyTeam announcement on Friday implied that ITA Airways had joined immediately. It normally takes at least a year for a new airline to join an alliance after applying for membership, but as ITA Airways is basically still Alitalia, I assume the necessary IT was already in place.

That said, it’s worth noting that the SkyTeam website still features Alitalia’s logo and has no word about ITA.

The only other question is whether your status is active on 1st January or if you will have to wait until 1st March 2022 when the Volare programme will start allowing redemptions. I am guessing 1st January is the key date.

Will you get lounge access if you match from BA Silver?

Probably.

There are only two levels of SkyTeam status: ElitePlus and Elite. Only ElitePlus members get lounge access.

We don’t yet know how many tiers the Volare programme will have and how they would match to your British Airways Executive Club status.

You should be OK, however. For example, with Air France and KLM’s Flying Blue programme, both Platinum and Gold equal SkyTeam ElitePlus, with Silver equalling SkyTeam Elite.

If we look at Delta Air Lines, it gives SkyTeam ElitePlus status to Diamond, Platinum and Gold members. Only Silver members are left lounge-less with SkyTeam Elite.

Conclusion

You have nothing to lose by requesting a status match from your British Airways Executive Club account to ITA Airways and its new Volare programme.

At the very worst, you might be able to use it to match back to another oneworld or Star Alliance programme later in 2022 if your British Airways status slips.

Full details of the status match, and how to apply, are on the ITA website here.

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:

Nectar American Express

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

American Express Platinum card Amex

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 card

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

Comments (88)

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

  • Mouse says:
    2 Nov2 November 05:31

    In relation to the point at the end about matching back to OW status later, does OW Emerald give First awing access or is it only BA Gold?

  • Ikaz says:
    2 Nov2 November 06:50

    The programme has 4 levels: Smart, Plus, Premium and Executive
    https://www.itaspa.com/en_it/volare/theprogram/regulations.html
    Premium gives lounge access, executive adds guesting to the benefits.

  • JFSV says:
    2 Nov2 November 07:13

    For reference, I was matched Air France Flying Blue (Gold Level) to Volare Premium. I believe that most other reports in Flyertalk are also of matches to Premium, though there appears to be some matching to Volare Executive as well.

    • rj24 says:
      2 Nov2 November 07:30

      I was matched BAEC silver to Volare Premium. Only took a few days for confirmation although it doesn’t seem to be all joined-up when I checked my Volare account on the ITA app.

      • Pete M says:
        2 Nov2 November 08:39

        Same here, was matched on the same day last week – oddly efficient! But the website is beyond awful.

    • Ikaz says:
      2 Nov2 November 07:32

      My BA gold was matched to Executive

  • Ben says:
    2 Nov2 November 07:38

    I applied for status match on 18/10 and got confirmation on 20/10. BAEC Gold to Volare Executive.

  • Christian says:
    2 Nov2 November 08:51

    Skyteam is quite literally the collection of airlines I would never fly with, all conveniently gathered into one alliance. Status match to them? No thank you.

    • Froggee says:
      2 Nov2 November 09:04

      I have a different perspective. For me it is the collection of airlines I’d rather not fly with but sometimes I kind of have to!

      • Alan says:
        2 Nov2 November 09:36

        Plus sometimes it can be handy to have to then match to something else in the future 🙂

    • marcw says:
      2 Nov2 November 09:46

      I wouldn’t say Delta, Air France, KLM, Korean, Garuda, Vietnam Airlines + Virgin Atlantic are left-over airlines.
      KLM is pretty good for the UK regions as well…

    • Andrew says:
      2 Nov2 November 10:14

      Why not Delta?

      They are my first choice for transatlantic. Looking forward to them restarting their EDI routes.

  • Alex Sm says:
    2 Nov2 November 08:58

    Why does BA not do status matches?

  • Alan says:
    2 Nov2 November 09:10

    I am trying to finalise my details on the ITA website. I cannot see GB or UK listed as a nation and the ZIP code only allows numbers. Anyone else having issues?

  • r* says:
    2 Nov2 November 09:55

    Why do they want a copy of passport, is that normal for status match?

    For some reason I dont get a feeling of good data security from this lot lol.

    • marcw says:
      2 Nov2 November 09:56

      Don’d do it then.

    • Rob says:
      2 Nov2 November 10:19

      This is Italy, they like paperwork.

    • Ben says:
      2 Nov2 November 10:57

      I sent driving license, it’s unwise to send a passport scan by plaintext email.

      A useful trick when being asked for ID by email (which is arguably in breach of GDPR) is to send an encrypted PDF and then the password in a separate email. Or even ask the organisation to call.

      • Guernsey Globetrotter says:
        2 Nov2 November 17:48

        I never understand this approach – if the email with your scanned ID can be intercepted then surely the subsequent password one can be too? You need the password to be delivered by another method to make this approach more secure – otherwise you are just inconveniencing yourself!

        • Ian M says:
          3 Nov3 November 08:33

          Yeah agree, password sent over Telegram/WhatsApp etc would seem a better idea.

      • Paul Pogba says:
        2 Nov2 November 19:08

        Emails are exchanged using a variety of types of encryption, you can check which (if any) using this website: https://www.checktls.com/

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

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