NEW: book ITA Airways flights using Virgin Points – good long-haul options

Four months after Virgin Atlantic joined the SkyTeam airline alliance, it is now possible to book ITA Airways flights using Virgin Points via Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

(Take a look at this article about how to spend Virgin Points on other SkyTeam carriers.)

ITA Airways is the rising phoenix of Alitalia, the former Italian flag carrier. Having been through numerous bailouts, at huge cost to Italian taxpayers, ITA was launched as a smaller airline without the legacy costs of Alitalia. The ploy worked, and Lufthansa is now in line to purchase ITA and add it to its growing European network.

For now, however, ITA remains part of the SkyTeam alliance which Virgin Atlantic also joined earlier this year.

Unfortunately ITA was one of the few airlines where the IT integration had not been finished, and points redemptions were not immediately possible.

Thit has now changed and it appears to be possible to book ITA Airways flights using your Virgin Points.

Where does ITA fly?

ITA remains a significantly smaller airline than Alitalia was before it collapsed, although it is growing at a rapid pace.

From the UK, ITA flies from London Heathrow to Rome and Milan; and from London City to Milan.

There is, of course, a large network of domestic connections with flights to 23 Italian cities as well as 30+ European cities.

On the long haul side of things, ITA currently flies to 12 destinations from Rome:

• Boston
• Buenos Aires
• Los Angeles
• Malé (from 16th December)
• Miami
• New Delhi
• New York JFK (also from Milan)
• Rio de Janeiro (from 29th October)
• San Francisco
• Sao Paulo
• Tokyo
• Washington

How many points will I need for an ITA redemption?

ITA redemptions are priced under Virgin Atlantic’s SkyTeam partner chart below. Pricing is per sector if you have connecting flights and is one-way: double the numbers for a return flight.

London Heathrow to Rome is 899 miles so you can expect to to pay 14,000 Virgin Points return in economy and 31,000 Virgin Points in business class.

London City to Milan is substantially less, at 595 miles, but not enough to price in the lowest price category.

I was able to find decent availability from London to Rome in economy from November, with taxes and fees coming in at £62.58:

Business class appears to be sold out consistently – in fact, there seems to be no availability at all at this stage so perhaps it is not fully integrated yet.

I did manage to find some business class availability from Rome to New York:

As you can see, this is priced at 123,500 Virgin Points + €348.90. This compares favourably to the 95,000 points + £998 Virgin charges on its own metal from Heathrow.

Part of the cash saving is eaten up by the additional points and the requirement to get to Rome in the first place, but you should still come out on top.

Interestingly, the cheapest points option is by connecting on KLM through Amsterdam: this is available from 97,000 points and €605.

Of course, it makes little sense to fly all the way to Rome only to backtrack to New York. You are better off flying south or east to destinations such as Malé or Tokyo. Malé flights don’t seem to be available for redemption at the moment, however.

What can you expect flying ITA Airways?

Whilst we have yet to fly ITA Airways, feedback has been positive.

This is no doubt aided by the relatively young fleet that ITA operates. This includes the latest A220 and A320neo jets on short haul routes (the A220 will soon operate flights to London City) and A350 and A330neo for long haul routes, plus a number of older A330s and A320s.

The A350s feature an older version of the British Airways Club Suite without doors.

On the A330neos, the first of which arrived in May, ITA has installed its own, fully customised business class cabin. Seats are a variant of the Thomson Vantage XL seat also used by Virgin Atlantic on its A330neos, albeit without doors.

ITA has 18 A330neos on order. These will gradually replace older A330 aircraft which will all be phased out by 2025, with the neos becoming the backbone of ITA’s long-haul fleet.

Instead of the bright colours of its livery, ITA has opted for “blue and sand” in business class. Looking at the image above, it looks extremely classy and ties into Italy’s rich heritage of luxury brands.

Conclusion

It is now possible to use Virgin Points to book ITA Airways flights, adding an additional redemption option when it comes to airline partners.

Whilst we have yet to experience ITA for ourselves, so far the airline appears to be succeeding where Alitalia failed. Lufthansa’s decision to purchase the airline suggests it feels the same way.

Redemptions appear to be decent value, particularly compared to Virgin Atlantic’s astronomical taxes and fees on long haul sectors. You’ll also be able to enjoy ITA’s impressive new business class which gives Virgin’s own A330neos a run for their money!

Given that backtracking via Rome makes the North America routes a bit of faff, you are most likely to consider ITA Airways to fly to:

• Buenos Aires
• Malé
• New Delhi
• Sao Paulo
• Rio de Janeiro
• Tokyo

Flights are bookable now on the Virgin Atlantic website. If you see availability but get a ‘sold out’ error message when trying to pay, this is unlikely to be true – give the call centre a ring.

PS. Whilst ITA stands for Italia Trasporto Aereo, it is pronounced as in the Italian pronunciation of ‘italy’, ie ‘eeh-ta’. It’s not ‘I-T-A’, like ‘B-A’. Just in case you were wondering ….

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How to earn Virgin Points from UK credit cards (September 2024)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Virgin Points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses.

You can choose from two official Virgin Atlantic credit cards (apply here, the Reward+ card has a bonus of 18,000 Virgin Points and the free card has a bonus of 3,000 Virgin Points):

You can also earn Virgin Points from various American Express cards – and these have sign-up bonuses too.

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold is FREE for a year and comes with 20,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 20,000 Virgin Points.

The Platinum Card from American Express comes with 40,000 Membership Rewards points, which convert into 40,000 Virgin Points.

Small business owners should consider the two American Express Business cards. Points convert at 1:1 into Virgin Points.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Platinum is increased to up to 80,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 80,000 Virgin Points. You will receive 8 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

SPECIAL OFFER: Until 22nd October 2024, the bonus on American Express Business Gold is increased to up to 40,000 Membership Rewards points, worth 40,000 Virgin Points. You will receive 4 points per £1 spent for the first three months, on up to £10,000 of spending. The card is FREE for your first year. Click here to read our full card review. Click here to apply.

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Virgin Points. 

(Want to earn more Virgin Points?  Click here to see our recent articles on Virgin Atlantic and Flying Club and click here for our home page with the latest news on earning and spending other airline and hotel points.)