Virgin Australia’s Velocity Frequent Flyer program has finally confirmed that it is ending its long-standing partnership with Alitalia, a day after the former Italian flag carrier operated its last flight.
Alitalia has been replaced by a new airline called ITA, which stands for Italia Trasporto Aereo. ITA will be fully owned by the Italian government for the next few years, operate a smaller fleet, and aims to eventually make a profit. But unlike its predecessor, it will not be a partner airline of Virgin Australia.
“Following its ongoing Extraordinary Administration period Alitalia will permanently cease flight operations on 15 October 2021. As a result, the partnership between Velocity Frequent Flyer and Alitalia will end on this date,” Velocity Frequent Flyer said in a statement released today.
“As such, from 15 October 2021, Alitalia will no longer be an airline partner in the Velocity Frequent Flyer program and members can no longer earn Points or Status Credits, or access Status benefits, on Alitalia. Members will not be able to use their Velocity Points to book Reward Seats on Alitalia flights.”
Alitalia has also been removed from Velocity’s list of partner airlines:
It’s a little bizarre that Velocity Frequent Flyer waited until today before formally announcing the end of this partnership. It has already been publicly known for months that Alitalia would end operations on 14 October 2021. At least this shouldn’t affect too many Velocity members, since Australia’s international borders haven’t reopened just yet.
ITA, which only began operations today, is also not yet part of any airline alliance. There have been rumours that ITA could join the SkyTeam alliance in the future, filling the void left by Alitalia, but no announcement has been made yet.
Velocity Frequent Flyer already removed lounge access for its Gold and Platinum members when flying with Alitalia last year. Velocity members were still able to earn points and status credits when flying with Alitalia until 14 October 2021, but Velocity has not offered any partner airline reward flight redemptions since April 2020.
Velocity members who flew with Alitalia prior to 15 October 2021 will still be able to claim missing points and status credits for up to six months after their travel date.
Read more: Alitalia is Shutting Down: Impact on Velocity Members?
Join the discussion on the Australian Frequent Flyer forum: Alitalia to shut down on October 15
