Delta and ITA Airways Announce Partnership Is Ending Soon

Updated: June 26, 2025, 8:13am CDT

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Earning Delta Miles and Medallion Qualification Dollars on ITA Flights
Delta and ITA Announce End of Partnership
Final Thoughts

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We know that Italy’s flag carrier, ITA Airways, is leaving the SkyTeam alliance — the alliance Delta Air Lines belongs to. The Italian airline was partially acquired by Germany’s Lufthansa and has joined the Lufthansa Group, meaning it will join Star Alliance in the future. It’s also leaving the loyalty ecosystem where you can earn Delta miles on its flights.

And while Delta previously said it would be possible to earn miles on ITA Airways flights after the date when ITA leaves SkyTeam, there’s a new twist. The partnership is completely ending on September 1, 2025.

Let’s see where we stand with the Delta-ITA Airways situation.

Earning Delta Miles and Medallion Qualification Dollars on ITA Flights

Earlier this year, Lufthansa acquired 41% of ITA Airways, the successor to bankrupt Alitalia, from the Italian government. Shortly after, ITA joined the Lufthansa Group, and now flyers can earn Lufthansa’s Miles & More loyalty currency on its flights.

This is important to U.S.-based flyers because Miles & More miles are hard to earn, lacking major U.S. transfer partners, and can be used to book the coveted Lufthansa first class. ITA’s own Volare points have their usefulness, but, as of now, they’re a pretty niche loyalty currency for most Americans.

A major consequence of the sale to Lufthansa is that ITA would also leave the SkyTeam alliance, whose biggest member is Delta. Therefore, it stood to reason that it would no longer be possible to earn Delta SkyMiles and Medallion Qualification Dollars (MQDs) on ITA flights after the official exit date from SkyTeam on April 30.

ITA Airways Airbus A350 900 at Rome FCO — Image Credit: Daniel Ross

ITA Airways is still listed as a global airline partner on the Delta website’s page dedicated to earning with airline partners. And, Delta has made clear that you can still earn SkyMiles and MQDs on its flights, albeit under certain conditions.

Commencing May 1, 2025 (based on boarding date), SkyMiles members flying with ITA Airways will earn miles only on the following flights:

Sold and operated by ITA Airways
Sold by Delta and operated by ITA Airways
Sold by ITA Airways and operated by Delta

As with all flights marketed by partner airlines, all flights sold by ITA earn miles and MQDs as a percentage of distance flown, according to the fare class paid.

If a fare class is not listed on the Delta site among those earning miles, no miles are earned. And, like Delta’s own flights, no miles are earned for award travel. (Delta award flights do earn MQDs, but award flights on ITA don’t.)

The classes earning SkyMiles and MQDs on ITA are:

Business (fare codes J, C, E, D, and I)
Premium economy (fare codes A and P)
Economy (fare codes Y, B, M, H, K, V, T, N, S, and Q)

This arrangement between Delta and ITA is not unusual, even though the airlines won’t be in the same alliance soon. It’s common to have bilateral agreements between carriers. Delta offers mileage earning, for example, on flights by WestJet and Air Baltic, which aren’t SkyTeam members.

Bottom Line:

As long as you book directly with Delta or ITA Airways and your flight is operated by these airlines, not some other partner, you should still be able to earn Delta SkyMiles on ITA flights even after the airline leaves SkyTeam.

Delta and ITA Announce End of Partnership

This current setup between Delta and ITA will end on September 1, 2025. When ITA joins Star Alliance, which Lufthansa belongs to, next year, you’ll once again be able to earn miles with a U.S.-based airline from ITA flights. At that point, you’ll be able to earn and spend United’s Mileage Plus miles on ITA Airways flights.

As for Delta, though, the partnership is winding down before a partnership with United becomes available. You can still earn SkyMiles and MQDs on flights through August 31, 2025. Additionally, you can still redeem miles for ITA-operated flights, so long as you make the reservation by August 31.

Final Thoughts

The landscape continues to evolve as ITA makes its transition toward Star Alliance, now that it’s already out of SkyTeam. Earning Delta SkyMiles will still be possible on ITA even though it’s left SkyTeam, which Delta is a member of, but earning and redeeming through Delta will end on August 31. As of September 1, 2025, Delta’s partnership with ITA will officially close.