Alitalia have cancelled my flights!

ryet86

This exact same situation has happened to me, except I've only just started to act on it. My outbound flight Rome to Beijing is on the 27th February, however, so it is not cancelled. Only the return flight on 19th April is, and I've had a lot of trouble getting through to them and getting any useful, let alone helpful, response.

Finally today I reached the customer service hotline in the US as it is toll-free (saving me hefty phone charges to the UK ringing from Skype in Germany, let alone the Italian "international" hotline which doesn't even ring..). With much reluctance, the woman merely told me I had two options - a full refund for the flights (which were booked with a super-cheap discount voucher in Dec), or a refund of HALF the fare for the cancellation of the return ticket - which would be issued after my departure..

Seems I may try to call them again with the EU regulations act on-hand, politely asking for my re-route options. (I am very flexible with the re-route in fact, even an alternative date will suit me fine, as long as I get back to Europe without having to pay extra!)
If they insist they cannot re-route me, I don't know what I'll say... At least post on their Facebook then - it seems to be having more effect..

richardw

If they don't offer to re-route you, read post nr 39 and consider the advice there.

wxuk

My flights has been re-routed today , and email received with new e-tickets!

Called customer service for nearly 2 weeks no joy, one of the operators give me a new number to call 0039 0665649 , ticket office, solved in no time!
Those who has not received new tickets can try this number. and good luck!

plunet

wxuk wrote: »

My flights has been re-routed today , and email received with new e-tickets!

Called customer service for nearly 2 weeks no joy, one of the operators give me a new number to call 0039 0665649 , ticket office, solved in no time!
Those who has not received new tickets can try this number. and good luck!

Yep, that's the number I called when I had my tickets sorted at the weekend. It counts as a landline call to Rome, Italy, and often will be cheaper than the damn 0871 number, but check before you dial!

I've since heard that you can call the London number 020 8814 7700 office hours Monday to Friday and there's an option to be put through to reservations, avoiding the 0871 number.

plunet

The other thing that comes into play here is the class of seat (and hence price) that Alitalia have authorised their reservations staff to reallocate you onto. When I was being rebooked the agent on the phone was muttering about seat classes.

I don't know what the limits have been set to, and maybe someone on here with more inside knowledge of the airline industry can help. But my basic understanding is that a bog standard economy class seat is Y class. And as you go up the letters the seat prices generally go up, although this is not always the case. Business Class is usually around C and I guess First Class is around A although I've never been there to find out!

My rerouted flights were done at the following classes.

VCE-AMS KLM Class L (this is a small jet)
AMS-PEK KLM Class R
PEK-AMS KLM Class R
AMS-LIN Alitalia Class S
LIN-LHR Alitalia Class S

You can use the IATA Matrix website http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ to query the available flights between two points on a particular day, and if you click through on the Details tab for any flight you can see the class of the ticket in Brackets after the class e.g Economy (Q)

So if you want to do some hunting around for flight availability with SkyTeam partners KLM, AirFrance, ChinaEastern, and AeroFlot(!) or even possibly Ethiad and you can find flights available at seat classes similar to what's showing up on my eTicket, you might have more of a chance of getting that re-routing when you're on the phone to them.

All this being said Alitalia shouldn't be making it this difficult. We shouldn't need to do the legwork. And if anyone with more expert knowledge of the inside of the airline booking systems can confirm or deny anything I've suggested, please do so!

richardw

plunet wrote: »

... But my basic understanding is that a bog standard economy class seat is Y class. And as you go up the letters the seat prices generally go up, although this is not always the case. Business Class is usually around C and I guess First Class is around A although I've never been there to find out...

Business is often J and First F.

Ich_2

Worth knowing for background information

http://www.foxbusiness.com/news/2013/02/11/alitalia-future-as-independent-carrier-at-stake/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foxbusiness%2Flatest+%28Internal+-+Latest+News+-+Text%29

Homebaked

I've just had my flight cancelled too. I had no idea any of this was going on until I received a very short and unhelpful email today. My outbound flight was for 22/03 so I guess they're notifying customers 5 weeks in advance. My original flights were FCO-PEK outbound and PEK-FCO-LHR return.

My friend duly rang up on the 0871 number and was offered an okayish Amsterdam re-route on KLM for the outbound flight (FCO-AMS-PEK) but for the return trip on 13/04 she was offered Beijing-Moscow-Rome-London involving Aeroflot. Surely there are better options out there?! Has anyone had better luck on these routes? I'm going to try calling again tomorrow, armed with a little research.

plunet

If I recall I too was offered an Aeroflot initially on the return, but I think this flight left a lot earlier 2am than the original Alitalia 9am departure. So I stated I was unable too leave Beijing any earlier than the original scheduled time and the Aeroflot offer was rapidly changed.

laurae

My redirected flight has now been cancelled. Are they seriousky taking the p? A month before i leave and I now have no flight...Again!!They told me all they can do is refund and then hung up the phone (seriously). I rang back and told them I dont want a refund, ive paid for my visa, hotels, booked tour guide, everything. Theyre telling me theres no other option. Where do i stand legally? I dont care if KLM cant get me there..they put me on KLM because they cant get me there..so find an airline that can! As far as I understand it, they have a legal duty to rearrange my flight.

**just to add, I quoted the law and this made no difference

and any calls to the ticket office number 0039 0665649, they hang up on you as soon as you speak English and note the problem