LAST CHANCE: Alitalia status match ends in two days – get status with 26 airlines

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• Henrik1888 says:

  29 Jan29 January 11:35

  I had my BA Silver successfully matched back in September. My expiry date is March 16th as my BA renewal date was Nov 15. Having retained Silver with BA is it worth emailing a scan of my new BA card showing expiry date of Nov 2016 to see if they’ll extend the Freccia Alata to March 2017?

  • Henrik1888 says:

    29 Jan29 January 11:36

    That should read my Alitalia expiry date is March 2016, not March 16th.

  • AndyGWP says:

    29 Jan29 January 19:46

    Similar situation – had Silver, got matched, attained Gold, tried a re-match – no response – tried again – no response (etc etc)

    Give it a go, you have nothing to lose 🙂

• Robert says:

  29 Jan29 January 12:30

  Thanks for the reminder.

  Shame it’s impossible to register for MILLEMIGLIA right now.
  Keep getting “Error in Service” when I try submitting the 2 stage.

• dirtyneedlebluesky says:

  29 Jan29 January 12:54

  Hi

  Since being matched from BA Silver I have discovered the following issues:

  Etihad – outbound Manchester and inbound from Abu Dhabi:

  Check-in desk did not initially acknowledge it was valid status. At Manchester they even almost refused me checking in at the Business Class counter. They said they had applied my number to the booking but this never came through (since applied for missing points). At Abu Dhabi they had to esquire if I was allowed my extra baggage. It took a few minutes to explain and they had to go off and check. Eventually they allowed it.

  Lounge Access in Manchester was the very impressive Etihad lounge. At Abu Dhabi – no such luck for their own premium lounge. We had to make a long trek back to a lounge that was available to all if you paid on the door.

  KLM – Manchester to Cologne (via Amsterdam):

  After booking I realised the ticket was hand-luggae only. I called KLM to discuss and they confirmed that with this status they would honour the additional one piece concept.

  Manchester check-in. Sorry your fare doesn’t allow a bag! I explained what I was told and a call was made to the KLM ticket desk. In they end they ‘waived’ the fee and even went as far as confirming I would be OK for the way back.

  Lounge Access – No issues in entering the pay-for-access public lounge in T3. (I reckon you could fly on any ticket there and show the card to gain entry as they just write your membership number of a clipboard – no computerisation!)

  Amsterdam – No access in using their Crown Lounges

  Cologne – Lounge not used. In terms of baggage it was the same story only they forced me to pay. I contacted KLM via Twitter and to be fair they have been very good and informed me and can claim for compensation (which I hope is just the 30 euros – but any bonus gladly received!).

  So the short-story is – when using this card with a SkyTeam partner for benefits (or even part owners of the airline) expect some difficulty.

  • Alan says:

    29 Jan29 January 20:36

    Can you take luggage on Ba if you only book hand luggage?

    • Rob says:

      29 Jan29 January 22:39

      If you pay, yes.

  • Alan says:

    30 Jan30 January 15:10

    Wow that’s a pretty poor experience you had! I recently gave a friend my Freccia Alata partner card and he had no issue getting the extra baggage when flying KLM from Glasgow. I think he even credited to KLM but flashed the card for baggage. Also got into the lounge in Glasgow OK but didn’t have time in Amsterdam.

    Mind you on the flipside I just got refused LHR T5 Fasttrack by an officious security person who wouldn’t even look at my card! It was a connecting flight and my BA status for some reason hadn’t come through with it, had to get BA desk to reprint the BP!

• Tom says:

  29 Jan29 January 12:55

  Received my card a few weeks ago. Annoyingly they only matched by Virgin Silver status to ‘Ulisse’ – which means no lounge access. Worth a try though.

• AmandaB says:

  29 Jan29 January 13:18

  Successfully applied for this & matched my BA Silver status.
  Question – we are flying KLM businees in Feb. I have no status with KLM. Are we better of using the FF number for Atalia to gain points etc or stick with original plan to start off a Flying Blue acct.? Neither airline are top of our list for flights generally but not sure if KLM biz against Atalia gold will help me retain past matched date of.March 17.
  Thanks

  • signol says:

    3 Feb3 February 16:46

    It is my understanding that Alitalia miles reset to zero every couple of years regardless. Flying Blue can be kept alive by taking a flight every 20 months…

    • Alan says:

      3 Feb3 February 23:34

      Yep, they seem to love relaunching every few years and cancelling out miles from the old version of the programme that haven’t been spent. Great programme for free status though 🙂

• David says:

  29 Jan29 January 15:03

  Purely theoretical (and I would never condone it), but what would happen if you sent a forged scan of a card? Do they actually check with BA (or any other airline) that you hold the gold/silver status?

  • Rob says:

    29 Jan29 January 16:19

    No. Anyone with photoshop can do this easily once you find a card image online.

  • Jon says:

    29 Jan29 January 21:49

    Beware – this sort of thing would get you in serious trouble (ie criminal record) if found out.

    To be honest it looks like Alitalia systems struggle to check their own status, let alone another airlines. But if people get caught doing this airlines may well increase requirements for a match. We will all lose.

• Paul says:

  29 Jan29 January 15:39

  I have tried to join twice now – I get a PIN at the end of the signup and then they do not follow up with the actual club number so I can’t followup for the status match…

• Nathan says:

  30 Jan30 January 00:06

  Sadly I won’t hit silver status with BA until March

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