Upgrading on Alitalia
 

My husband and I are flying JFK-Milan-Florence in late may and it's being arranged by an incentives company through his job. Although we have not yet received our tickets in the mail, I'm assuming that we are flying coach, which is just fine by me because it's free. BUT it sure would be nice to fly first class (or magnifico class as Alitalia calls it - I love that). Alitalia is a codeshare partner of Delta, of which we have tons of Skymiles. But I've been told that Alitalia doesn't accept Skymiles. Is that true? We don't wish to pay $1500 each for the upgrade, but I was just curious.

I've never flown internationally in first, but it sounds glorious to be able to put my feet up. Am I just dreaming?

Thanks to all!

runlong

"you've been told..."

By whom?

Call the Delta Skymiles desk and ask them..believe me, they'll know.

I was told my a rep at Alitalia, that honestly sounded confused at what I was asking, so I wanted to confirm. I suppose I should call Delta instead.

I flew Magnifica last year on Delta skymiles and I wouldn't do it again. Even though I had boarding pass in hand they weren't going to let me board because they had oversold the plane and since my ticket was "free" I was the one going to get bumped. I didn't make that flight and was never compensated by Alitalia although Delta did compensate me very generously. I was put on a later flight in magnifica class but they didn't have business class veg. meal for me because I was just an "upgrade". Also the plane I was on was old and didn't even have idividual tv's. That said my husband flew them again in b/c in a new plane and said it was nice, he had purchased a b/c ticket where I had the frequent flyer ticket and he was treated a lot better. Anyway my experience with Alitalia and Delta skymiles was not a positive one.

You cannot upgrade a coach ticket on Alitalia using Delta Skymiles, but you can redeem a free award ticket on Alitalia using your Skymiles.

Generally speaking, with some exceptions, you cannot upgrade a flight using miles from a program other than that of the operating carrier.