Star Alliance loses Asiana,
gains ITA Airways

What's changing,
and when

Star Alliance is reshuffling two of its members within months of each other, and neither move was made at the alliance level — both trace back to airline consolidation elsewhere. Asiana Airlines is leaving as it's absorbed into Korean Air, a SkyTeam carrier. ITA Airways arrived earlier in the year, moving the opposite direction after Lufthansa Group took a stake in the Italian carrier and pulled it out of SkyTeam. Neither airline flies under a Swiss brand, but both changes land directly on any Miles & More member's map of where miles can be earned, burned, and connected through.

Asiana's exit —
the deadline that matters now

The formal exit date is 16 December 2026, but it's the earlier dates that actually require action. Star Alliance mileage earning on Asiana-operated flights stopped on 15 October 2026 — any Asiana segment flown after that date earns nothing through the alliance, regardless of which programme you credit to. More pressingly, Star Alliance is only accepting missing-mileage claims for past Asiana flights through 31 October 2026. If you've flown Asiana in recent months and haven't yet credited those miles to Miles & More, that window closes in days, not weeks.

Beyond the mileage mechanics, Asiana has been a real, if relatively niche, long-haul redemption option for Star Alliance members flying to South Korea and onward into parts of Asia. Once the exit is final in December, that option disappears from the Star Alliance partner chart entirely — Asiana will fly on as part of Korean Air, a SkyTeam carrier, and nothing has been announced about any future redemption relationship with Miles & More. Star Alliance is also opening a new lounge at Seoul Incheon in the fourth quarter of 2026 to replace the one Asiana's departure leaves behind, so the airport experience there isn't disappearing even as the redemption option does.

ITA Airways joins —
what's new for Zürich and Geneva flyers

ITA Airways' move the other direction is less urgent but more immediately useful. Having left SkyTeam as part of Lufthansa Group's acquisition of a stake in the airline, ITA became a full Star Alliance member on 31 March / 1 April 2026, and its loyalty programme is now folded into Miles & More rather than running in parallel. For a Zürich- or Geneva-based flyer, that means ITA's network into and around Italy — hubbed at Rome Fiumicino and Milan Linate — is now a direct-booking, direct-earning option through Miles & More, including reciprocal Star Alliance lounge access at both hubs.

It's not a redemption sweet spot on the scale of a Lufthansa First Class seat or a Flying Blue Promo Award, but it's a genuinely new tool: short, regional Italian connections that previously required a separate SkyTeam relationship now sit inside the same account as every other SWISS, Lufthansa, and Austrian booking.

The open question:
status carryover

One genuine gap in the public information: what happens to elite status built up through Asiana flying — segments, status miles, or qualifying spend counted toward Frequent Traveller, Senator, or HON Circle — once the exit is final on 16 December 2026. Neither Star Alliance nor Miles & More has published anything addressing this directly. If status you're tracking this year includes Asiana activity, that's worth a direct check with Miles & More rather than an assumption either way.

What to actually
do about it

If none of this touches your travel patterns, there's nothing to do — most Miles & More members never fly Asiana or ITA in a given year. For the minority it does affect, the action items are narrow and specific: credit any outstanding Asiana flights before 31 October, don't assume status carries over without checking, and if Italy is part of your travel plans, take a look at what ITA now adds to the map before booking elsewhere out of habit.