Alitalia

I bought return flights and the eticket stated that 1 piece of checked luggage was included on both the outbound and return flights. At Heathrow airport I was told that my flight did not include checked luggage and so I had to pay £40 for it. I did so because I didn't want to miss my flight. On the way back the Italian clerk decided that I had paid for my luggage later and that was why it was not on their computer. This was not the case. Although I was only £40 out of pocket I don't like being cheated. When I arrived home I emailed them demanding the money back. Their response was that the travel agent must be at fault and there would be no refund. As if a major airline would go under with £40 less in the bank. I will not be travelling with this airline again as you don't know whether their prices are accurate or not. Maybe the Italians can come up with a better airline?

We have not yet even flown with Alitalia but experience so far has been very poor indeed. We had been warned about the airline but we had no choice in the matter. The forthcoming long flight due in January persuaded us to book comfort seats so we had extra leg room. Not cheap at £75 each on each flight. When I rang I was told I couldn't book these seats because I am over 65 (my wife is younger). When challenged they told me it was because the seats were by the emergency exits. After much discussion they said they would book them but could not guarantee that I would be able to board the plane. She said this is explained on their website. I checked and this is not so, it just says that passengers must be fit and able which I am.

Emailed to complain about this but no reply. Tried again but no reply. Eventually I contacted the Customer Services Manager (not possible to email CEO unfortunately). She replied that their staff are really experienced and knew that age itself was not a barrier and I could book. She said she would remind their telephone staff. When I rang to try and book again I was once more was asked if I was over 65. When I said yes she went away to check if I could use these seats and eventually said she would book them. I was told I would get an email by reply - I didn't so phoned again and was told they would email me - they didn't.

Emailed Customer Services Manager again to tell her of my recent experience. She emailed me back to say that their telephone staff would not have raised the issue of age and in fact it was me that raised it and because this had never been asked about before. This was absolutely not true. I went back to the CSM to tell her that she was being mislead and felt aggrieved that I was being blamed for the confusion. I said I felt that an apology would be in order. I have had no reply.

Customer service seems non-existent, no wonder Alitalia is in trouble.

There are many online reviews about the appalling service provided by Alitalia both in-flight and on the ground. I also experienced poor in-flight service but this was not the worst part of my experience. On September 21, 2013 I was returning from Rome to Toronto on an Alitalia flight with 3 friends. Despite arriving at check in a full two hours before our flight, we were told that there were no seats for us and we had to take a connecting flight some hours later. Under European Community rules, we were entitled to compensation for “denial of boarding” but it is now August 11, 2014 and I have yet to receive compensation.

My advice to anyone in a similar situation:

1. Alitalia will occasionally send you e mails but don’t expect them to respond to any of yours.

2. Don’t bother trying to contact the Alitalia office in your home country; they will merely tell you to contact Alitalia headquarters by e mail. (see 1 above)

3. Don’t try and contact Alitalia headquarters by phone. Even if you are willing to invest in the expense of the international call, you will find it almost impossible to find anyone at the other end that speaks English. I did find one but she lied to me that my claim was being processed when it was not.

4. Don’t bother trying to contact the Alitalia Conciliation Service. This is an agency set up to handle consumer affairs for Alitalia but it is owned by them, so guess whose side they are on. I did not manage to get a single response from them via e mail or registered letter.

5. Do try and contact ENAC. This is the agency in Italy that handles all civil aviation issues. They will reply to your e mails (eventually) but they seem to have limited power to get Alitalia to follow European regulations

Above all, learn your lesson as I did and vow never to fly on this useless airline ever again.

Each airplane on my connection with them was late 1 hour (you can expect that with them) .. even so with the extra time (4 hour layover) they DID manage to lose one of my two bags with I payed extra for .. unlike other airlines who have lost my luggage I was waiting around the airport for 3-4 hours just to get told they don't even have an idea about where my bag is and gave me a website and a phone number (nonfunctional) to call to check the status .. it's been over 24 hours since and NOTHING has been updated or done about it as I saw on the website.. any other professional airline would have contacted me and at least been courteous enough to tell me the status of my luggage, and usually have it delivered the very next day (never waited over 2 days to get my luggage delivered anywhere). So, please next time make it easier on yourself and DON'T fly Alitalia ... unless you love being hastled and ripped off .. not to mention the food sucked!

Picture it. Alitalia Rome to Toronto...a 10 hour flight. No spare seats on an ancient Airbus 320. The plane was so old the seats were stained and lumpy, the trays were broken, the few "dropdown" TV screens were broken (the screen near us was basically all red.) Now add in.. The attendants were the rudest we've met and they seemed to be counting the days until they could retire. In addition to hating customers, they REALLY hated maintaining the washrooms. The toilet paper kept running out as well as the towels. The attendants would humph and gesture and eventually throw two little rolls into the washroom which of course did not last since everyone was waiting for toilet paper. Then, just to make everyone even more fed up they "ran out of drinking water". Yes, a 10 hour flight ran out. (We've been on 18 hour flights to Asia with other airlines that managed to have enough water. Hmm?) My husband thinks they purposefully were withholding water so we would not use the washroom.

We didn't book Alitalia...we booked Delta which is a partner so I guess both airlines will never see us again!

The disinterest and carelessness of their staff is simply unbelievable. The counter girl at the Catania airport(Sept. 25) simply slapped on the tag numbers as they occurred unto the luggage of our group of four -with the result that real owners of the bag were all mixed up! Since all the four cases had a different final destination in other countries!After many days three cases were delivered after a nightmare. But mine will be forever lost! Ther published telephone numbers in Italy do not work- I don't know how this airline is still in business! A disaster!

We booked an Alitalia flight last week to fly on 11 OCT from Rome to Barcelona. Unfortunately, we had followed a link from Google which had taken us to the Alitalia page with a filter set for buying "Youth" tickets. We are not Youth (i.e. under 26 years of age). When we discovered our mistake, we called Alitalia who first told us nothing could be done. When we called back (the line got disconnected) they said that they would refund us, but not before they took out all the related fees. Our tickets cost a total of €120. We received a refund for €10 after all costs and fees for the refund and penalties had been taken out. We had also asked to use the €120 towards the cost of the flight for adults (€285). Alitalia said that they couldn't do that as they could only integrate the money we had already spent with the highest costing ticket (business class over €1000 per ticket).

So essentially for our mistake, we were forced to give them €110.

This is perhaps one of the worst examples of customer service I've ever experienced.

Be very careful before booking a flight with Alitalia.

This may be the worst airline I've ever flown on. My husband, handicapped daughter and myself were on a flight from Rome to Los Angeles. Approximately 4 hours in to the flight I asked the stewardess for something soft ( such as yogurt or ice cream) because I needed to put my daughter's medication ( which are sprinkle capsules for seizures) in a creamy substance. She informed me they had no yogurt or ice cream or anything else for that matter which was soft. She then returned with a small yogurt and informed me with a 'serious attitude' she would give me HER yogurt. And if that wasn't bad enough about another 5 hours later my daughter HAS to take more medication. So again, I ask the stewardess explaining the situation and she tells me "No, we have no soft foods on this flight and I already gave you my yogurt". An hour or so later some disgusting tea sandwiches were served which I managed to use for her medication but not without sprinkling part of the meds on to the seat. I have never encountered such rude service on an airline! Never again will we fly Air Alitalia.

I thought it was a joke, but unfortunately, NOT!!!!

I traveled for 13 hours (Rome to Los Angeles) with a metal box between my legs, no space for the legs at all......every chair in the window + some in the middle rows!!! Unbelievable.......I won't fly with Alitalia again, not even for free, no joke!!! Their airplane's designer must have purchase their degree in no-leg’s land!! Plus, bathrooms were nasty and the entertainment center didn’t work for the first 6 hrs of the flight!

Too bad that I can't rate ALITALIA 0 start!!! Ok, the food at least was 1 star!!! Check it out the picture…..and good luck if you decide to fly with them!

I got a ticket round trip 3 months ago for yesterday. the flight back was for yesterday. Because of some issue I decided to change the ticket to 2 days or 3 days later.

They have a policy that if there is available seat you can change your flight. I checked online and there were 5 seats for 2 days later and 3 seats available for 3 days later than her flight.

I contacted them to change her flight but they told her there is no seat available to Miami for those days however I could see there is. We called them a lot and every time they told us no way its closed. Finally we decided to change it to business class and they told yes there is.

The business class for 2 days later was around $1600 in the website for buying new but they told us the difference is going to be $1900 + 250 change fee + $20 other fee!!!!

Anyway I told them I want to talk to the manager but they told me our manager is not free to talk to you! even I gave them my number and they never call me back.

I called checpoair company and asked for Alitalia ticket for 2 day later and they told me we can now book your ticket in economy class!!!!!!!!

I again called Alitali and told them I can buy it from somewhere else and the guy told me yes those are for new costumers not for you that you wanna change the date of ticket.!!!!!!!

Finally I realize that they will want whole money that's why they say we don't have available seat.

I hate them. It should be noted that I got the ticket from alitalia for 2 days later through cheapoair!!!!

I really hate them and do not suggest anyone to deal with them...