ITA Airways Rolls Out Frequent Flyer Program For Children and Teenagers

Italy’s ITA Airways is expanding its frequent flyer program to allow passengers as young as two to collect points on flights. The change will enable families to link accounts and pool points as the carrier is poised to launch seven more long-haul routes this year.

Volare for all

ITA Airways’ loyalty program, Volare, has been growing rapidly since its launch in March 2019. The program surpassed one million users in the first year and is now launching AVVENTURA, the new track specifically designed for families traveling with their children. By reducing the joining age from 16 to 2, a new segment of travelers can begin to collect points on ITA Airways flights, along with those operated by Skyteam Alliance and partner carriers.

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The new agreement includes reciprocal earnings in both frequent flyer programs.

Frequent fliers with children can now unlock the “Create a Family” function for transferring and pooling up to 100,000 non-qualifying Volare points annually. Family groups can range from one adult and one minor to two adults and six children. Emiliana Limosani, Chief Commercial Officer of ITA Airways & CEO of Volare, noted how quickly the loyalty program has grown:

“We are delighted to introduce the AVVENTURA program, which is tailored to young travellers, and designed to expand the scope of the Volare loyalty program. All good things come in threes and this new addition to Volare comes after the previous two dedicated to businesses and SMEs (small and medium size enterprises).

“We are consistently committed to offering custom-tailored solutions to all our Volare program members, who have grown to over 1.8 million in just two years, and as of today also to kids who are travelling with their families on our Company’s aircraft”.

Photo: ITA Airways

The program will continue to expand over the next several months to include more “exclusive services and benefits” for the young members of the AVVENTURA program and introduce specific products to meet their needs.

Earn airline status even earlier

Young travelers can accumulate points just like adult Volare members. Each member starts at the Smart Club tier before progressing to the Plus, Premium, and Executive clubs. The qualifying points used to advance to the next Tier are only earned on flights, whereas non-qualifying points can be earned by various means and spent on reward flights.

The program has been generous in rewarding its members. At the end of 2022 and 2023, Volare automatically renewed each member’s earned status, regardless of their flying activity or points gained during the year. Frequent flyers who maintained their tier through travel were awarded 10,000 non-qualifying points to spend.

Photo: ITA Airways

Speaking to Business Traveler, the airline’s Chief Commercial Officer, Emiliana Limosani, confirmed the program anticipates reaching its goals of 2 million members within the next two months and 2.6 million by the end of the year.

What’s next for Volare?

The program has rapidly expanded its partners list over the past two years. Earlier this month, ITA Airways announced a codeshare and loyalty partnership with Aeromexico. Up next might be Emirates and its Skywards program. The two airlines agreed to expand their interline agreement into a full codeshare partnership and establish extended reciprocal loyalty benefits on both airlines’ frequent flyer programs “at a later stage.”

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The carrier is soaring to new heights with six new international routes this summer.

The airline has also been steadily expanding its route network. A nonstop connection from Rome Fiumicino to Chicago takes off next month, followed by direct connections to Toronto and Riyadh in May. In June, flights will begin to Accra and Kuwait City, followed by Dakar in July and Jeddah in August.

These will be supported by a fleet of over 80 aircraft, which is expected to grow to 96 aircraft by the end of 2024.