Just a friendly reminder that if you are still sitting on Alitalia MilleMiglia miles from last year, you have until March 31, 2018 to burn them.
In some loyalty programs, your miles expire due to inactivity. In others, your account expires due to inactivity. With Alitalia, however, your entire account periodically expires regardless of activity. Alitalia blames Italian law, though it has not done anything to “fix” the problem.
The program was supposed to end on December 31, 2015. That deadline was pushed to the end of 2016, then the end of 2017. But the extensions are over. The program expired on December 31, 2017 and a “new” edition of the program (which is identical to the previous one) is now in effect.
If you are carrying over miles from the old program, you only have until March 31, 2018 to burn them. That leaves you with only a few weeks.
Don’t be alarmed if you see a mileage balance of zero when you login to your Alitalia account. If you’re carrying miles from the old program, simply navigate to the award search page and you will see them there.
How to Extend Your Alitalia Miles
There is one way to extend to your Alitalia miles. Fly four segments on Alitalia by March 31st and your old miles will still be valid for at least a year in the new program. There are no fare class restrictions.
Furthermore, I recently received an email offer not only to extend my miles, but to earn a sizable bonus:
Gentile MATTHEW,
Simply purchase and fly 2 flights with Alitalia by March 31, 2018 to keep the miles of the previous edition and have the opportunity to get a bonus miles equal to a percentage of your unused miles balance from the 2013-2017 edition of the Program, to use them in the new edition of the Program.
I clicked through on the link and found the following–
This is actually quite a lucrative offer if you are sitting upon a sizable balance and don’t want to use the miles before the end of this month. I’m skeptical, though. While the body of the email labels this a bonus, this page isn’t at all clear that you can keep your old miles and earn this bonus…
Another problem: the fine print limits this offer to residents of Europe, Northern Africa, and the Middle Eat.
That did not stop Alitalia, though, from emailing it to my USA-registered account…
CONCLUSION
The 2018 “edition” of the program is even more limited. This year’s MilleMiglia Program expires on December 31, 2018 and miles must be burned by January 31, 2019…or maybe March 31, 2019. Who knows…it’s Alitalia:
With Etihad cutting its losses on Alitalia and Air Italy making an aggressive push to capture flag carrier status with the backing of Qatar, I do question if Alitalia can make it. In the back of my mind I continue to believe that the Italian government will not just let it go. But with Air Italy now in the equation, I just cannot back up that viewpoint with anything other than intuition.
Tomorrow I’ll offer my thoughts on best redemption options using your expiring Alitalia miles.
> Read More: Air Italy: Qatar’s Plan to Destroy Alitalia
So no one has Alitalia miles???
I do! Do you think I will be able to extend them beyond March 2019?
Have you managed to do this last March 2018?
Thanks
Don’t think so, but always depends with AZ!