terminalfive

Sorry for starting a new thread but I've spotted a couple of things that may be of interest (I personally hadn't understood this)

Miles from the 2008 - 2012 programme will be valid until 30 June 2013 but cannot be combined with miles earnt after 1 Jan 2013 for redeeming flights etc. I.e. as I understand it - if you have 79000 miles on 31 december and earn 1000 miles on 2 jan you cannot redeem for a flight

http://www.alitalia.com/IT_IT/millem...ntclosure.aspx

Redeeming between 1 Jan and 30 Jun using "new miles" as others have mentioned you can use the "old" tables - ie you can redeem for less

http://www.alitalia.com/IT_IT/millem...one/index.aspx

I assume that the "old" miles redeemed between 1 Jan - 30 Jun will also be calculated off the old tables - is that correct? If I have 80000 miles and I want to fly FCO - LAX in J I can book that on 10 Jan for flying in July - correct?

I think this is far too confusing and not being able to link the miles is, in my view, wrong

terminalfive

The more I think about it the more I'm annoyed.. On 31 december I have my AMEX miles credited from my credit card automatically.. What happens - they are valid for 24 hours as I can't link them to the "new" MM programme...

Surely not...?????

raistlin

Correct. And not being able to link the two is supposed to happen as the old program is expiring due to the law. In 2008 it was exactly the same, the only difference being that the leftover at the end of june was credited as a bonus in July in the new account.

Xandrios

Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?

Squerez

It's clear that stopping the collection of miles and obliging everybody to restart from zero is the way they use to cut their debts towards all those miglionaires like us....
They could have extended the collection well beyond 5 years because the law doesn't forbid anyone to offer a credit for a NEW collection.
Anyway, the purpose is clear.
The result we will see in few weeks: how many will happily return to MM program?

As per me after 12 years in Millemiglia program, I decided to stop and move to Flying Booo as long as I will fly with Skyteam. Otherwise I'm quite happy with Miles&More of LH having a credit card which extend forever my miles.
In fact I cannot stand another year in MM and then a new stop (as it is for the Trenitalia program for eg., another pitiful example of FT program)...

How I will spend my miles? Not with the sick e-coupons which have an outrageous conversion rate and give you a one-shot discount code which is ridicoulous if you have let-say 2K Euros to spend. Do they think we will book a business roundrip just to expire everything and make them happy?

I will prepare my travl planning until Spring 2014 and then I will check.
In fact we may ask for prizes until June 2013...

raistlin

While I completely concur, I must point out I got in touch with the chief commercial officer, Pieraccioni.

While I will not post here his (rather lengthy and surprisingly personal) letter, I will just mention that he was adamant that making us spend the miles is actually an evident issue which will harm them. He maintained that this was due to legal requirements they had to meet, that were relaxed in 2008 as part of the LAI/CAI passage - one of the bonuses given to preserve the airline.

Make of it what you will.

terminalfive

I'm still pretty annoyed and ultimately (and ironically) my only "way out" was to transfer some AMEX points to my MM account so as to have the right number of points to redeem my tickets

Done that and the AMEX points posted immediately (within 24 hours)

This "changeover" has not been at all clear though in my book

BTW - there are no more e coupons available

yerffej201

Why would the program expire after a period of time? I mean, i understand it's government legislated but who the hell would just stay in the program? Shouldn't there be enough feedback and complaints and people moving away so that the program becomes unprofitable?

raistlin

My thoughts exactly.

bungler

In the miles statement the new edition changed from "2013-2015" to "2013-2017". Mistake or good news? At least that way we could have another five years before repeating this experience, and my motto is always that anything could happen in such a long time, so the expiry ceases to be a worry.

HMoss

Yes, trying to follow Alitalia's new program rules requiring booking before Dec 31 and flying before end of June in order to use one's existing miles, I made an 80K miles reservation with the 41K miles in my account and was told I had UNTIL JANUARY 9TH!!! to transfer the remaining 39K miles needed. I was a bit nervous about this so I actually spoke with three different AZ agents, ALL of whom told me the exact same thing. So I transferred 40K AMEX miles on Jan. 3rd, called to confirm my reservation and was told, per the posts here, that, sorry!, I couldn't combine the miles to get my ticket.

I am fit to be tied!! Had anyone told me to get the AMEX miles in before Dec. 31st I easily could have done so. I'm STILL sitting here flabbergasted!

bungler

woah, couldn't make sense of most of that...

it looks like you messed up a bit with miles?

in these cases always look carefully the details on the website and be clear with what you're doing always. It is possible to transfer miles to the old program still now, but you have to specify that's what you want.
and it depends what transfer you're talking about -- after rereading your post it looks like you were talking about AMEX transfers while the AZ rep's understood transferring miles from another MM account. Anyway you'll have to re-explain yourself 'cos I haven't really understood what happened.

did you get enough miles in the end?

I have to agree this whole changeover thing was avoidable as far as customer's opinion goes...

HMoss

Interesting, Bungler, I wish I had read your reply before calling Alitalia again. This time I controlled my wrath, explained the situation to the agent (including telling her the "new" 40K miles were from AMEX) and asked if she had any ideas that would allow me to get the ticket without having to add an additional 40K miles. She didn't. So I then asked her how many miles were needed for a premium plus ticket; she told me 39K. Since I had 41K "old" miles in my account I asked if I could split the 80K RT ticket into two one-ways and pay for the return flight - as a premium plus ticket - with my old miles, while paying for the Magnifica outbound with "new" miles. She said I could and found me a premium plus return seat to JFK, not my preferred airport but at least back in the US and at least using up most of my "old" miles.

I've mentioned to every agent I've spoken with that the 40K "new" miles I added were AMEX miles and no one has seemed to think that made a difference -- although I did not ask them to verify that specific point. Are you certain that AZ accounts for AMEX miles differently or are you speculating? Thanks for your suggestion, anyway!