ITA Volare: Status Benefits Remain with 6 SkyTeam Airlines + New Status Match for Oneworld Frequent Flyers

After the Lufthansa Group’s acquisition, ITA Airways will leave the SkyTeam alliance on May 1, 2025. Afterwards, the airline will remain without an alliance for a period, with plans to join Star Alliance no earlier than 2026.

Nonetheless, ITA Airways will continue to cooperate with some SkyTeam airlines. It’s been known for some time that this cooperation includes mileage accrual. Now, ITA has announced how things will proceed from May onwards. Accordingly, ITA Volare frequent flyers will continue to enjoy selected status benefits with six SkyTeam airlines from May to December 2025. These benefits include, among others, extra baggage allowance, lounge access, and reciprocal mileage accrual.

At the same time, a new—and possibly final—status match offer has been launched. Frequent flyers from various Oneworld programs, as well as Emirates Skywards, are invited.

Status Benefits Remain with Selected SkyTeam Partners

The six airlines that will continue offering status benefits to Volare customers from May 1 are:

Air France, KLM, Delta Air Lines, Middle East Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Saudia.

Depending on the ITA status held, the following perks are available:

• ITA Volare Plus Club:
  • 1 piece of free checked baggage
  • SkyPriority for check-in and boarding
• ITA Volare Premium Club / Executive Club:
  • 1 piece of free checked baggage
  • SkyPriority for check-in, boarding, baggage, and the security check fast track
  • Lounge access (only with Air France, KLM, Virgin, MEA – no guests included)

Regarding lounge access, the FAQ page explicitly mentions only access to the lounges of Air France (with an Air France flight), Virgin (with a Virgin flight), etc. It remains unclear whether travellers flying with these partners can access other SkyTeam or partner lounges. The likely answer seems to be “No.”

In addition, cooperation with AeroMexico, Air Europa, Korean Air, and Aerolíneas Argentinas will continue—but only for mileage accrual, with no status benefits.

New Status Match for Oneworld Frequent Flyers

ITA Volare is essentially on its last legs. Lufthansa seemingly has no intention of continuing the program and will migrate Volare members to Miles&More. Volare will be discontinued at the end of December 2025.

Still, ITA is once again offering a new status match. This runs from April 22 to June 10, 2025, and, according to the PDF, targets frequent flyers of the following programs:

• American Airlines AAdvantage
• British Airways Club
• Emirates Skywards
• Finnair Plus
• Iberia Plus
• Malaysia Airlines Enrich
• Oman Air Sindbad
• Qatar Airways Privilege Club
• Royal Air Maroc Westjet Rewards Safar Flyer

There is no dedicated registration form. Interested individuals must create a new ITA Volare account, and the status match option should then be available in the user area. Required documents include proof of current frequent flyer status. Also, you must not have previously used an ITA status match.

The matched status will be valid until December 2025. Processing may take up to 60 days, leaving only about 6 months to enjoy the benefits. More information and terms can be found on the offer page:

Since Volare status now also grants access to Lufthansa lounges, the offer could be worthwhile. At the same time, Miles&More is offering its own status match for a €99 fee, which is open to British Airways and Iberia frequent flyers. In principle, a status with Miles&More is more attractive, but for the above-mentioned SkyTeam airlines, the Volare status could still be worthwhile.

Translated by Ditmar

Cover Picture: ITA Airways A320 in Amsterdam | Photo by Niels Baars on Unsplash