Alitalia Check in and Boarding Process

maynatalie

Hello, I was wondering if anyone has had a similar experience with Alitalia check in and boarding process as we encountered at Rome airport this weekend where the staff were so unapproachable and rude that one would think they don't want any custom! We arrived to check in at 15:00 for our flight departing at 17:20 to London Heathrow. When we received our boarding passes, the lady advised us to look out for our gate at 16:45 which is the time stated on our boarding passes. We proceeded to go through security and waited for our gate to be allocated. Once we saw this come up on the screen, we started walking to the gate, the queue at passport control was a long one however we arrived at the gate at 17:07 and were told that it had been shut. At this stage we said how could this be when the gate was announced at 16:45 and we had been walking through the whole time to which the staff said that the gate shuts 15 minutes before and we could no longer get on the flight. At this stage, crew members were going through. I then had one of the lady staff members look at my duty free bags and say that I shouldn't have spent time in duty free insinuating that we had lost our flight because we were in duty free! Apart from the fact that this is untrue as I have my receipt stating I paid and left at 16:21 (at which point no gate announcements had been made), the arrogance and rudeness of this comment was absolutely appalling. 5 people who arrived a few minutes after us were told that they would now have to delay the plane to get their luggage off. Although we argued that it took us 22 minutes from the area past security to walk to gate E18 with passport checks they still continued to not want to listen and tell us that this is the process across the world and that they travel all the time and that's how it is. We were told to go back and book on 21:20 flight. When we got back to the ticket office they told us that we could not be issued with boarding passes for the next flight but had to purchase new tickets and the only thing that they could do for us was give us tickets for 5th June at a lower rate which for our family came to £1035.18. Having to pay such a substantial amount for a single flight for no fault of our own but for just following the instruction we were given for boarding which was 16:45 and at which time we walked across the airport to the gate allocated, is not only financially crippling for a family of 5 returning from holiday but also to have been treated in the way that we were, needs to be addressed as well as how they allocate gates and timings as this didn't only effect only us but passengers that were on the 21:20 flight when this happened again, however this time two families for some reason were allowed to board the plane after boarding time had ended. More people after this also missed the gate closing and we had to then wait for 25 minutes while these passengers bags were taken off the plane. Obviously this is an issue with Alitalia and I am going to try and seek compensation but just wondered if anyone had had a similar thing happen to them using this airline? Any feedback would be most appreciated. Many thanks, Natalie

The_Fat_Controller

Paragraphs please, so difficult to read as is !

k3lvc

Too long to read but in summary you arrived at the gate after it closed, they wouldn't let you on, and they displayed some Italian attitude (as is their right) in suggesting you should have been at the gate sooner.

Even though gate numbers themselves aren't displayed in Rome until close to boarding time they do show which area (A-E) you should be in and the gates are generally all within a few mins walk in that area however if you'd gone off shopping in A and then needed to be in E it could be a significant walk (with passport control to navigate to leave the Schenghen zone)

You don't appear to have a leg to stand on - maybe a misunderstanding of 'look for your gate at 16h45' vs 'be at your gate at 16h45' but it's (an expensive) battle you're not going to win

amberhen49

I'd have to agree with k3lvc unfortunately. I know they said start looking for your gate at 16:45 but for a flight leaving at 17:20, I'd be expecting to be boarding at that time, not just starting to find the gate. Some airports do seem to leave it late to confirm gates sometimes but they usually give you a particular zone, if not the actual gate. Add in queues at passport control etc and the time soon disappears.

Smevchenko

Although you may feel you were given some confusing information about looking for a gate at 16.45, this is 35 mins before scheduled departure. Most people would expect to be boarding at this time, and would be concerned at arriving at a gate 20 mins before departure, so you should have really clarified with the staff at check-in, or made more of an effort to locate the gate, or area you would have been boarding from. The fact that they closed the gate, suggests the vast majority of passengers had already boarded, so they obviously had been able to get to the gate for a more suitable time.