Alitalia nightmare - Who can help?

I just returned from Italy, took Alitalia both ways. None of our luggage got lost and the experience was a lot better than I expected. Newer plane on the way back. My husband and I had both checked in 2 large bags and then had to check in one carryon because of the weight (had a lot of gifts in it) which they didn't charge extra for. All bags came back. Rest of the story in my report.........

I'm going to give you a website where there are lots of seasoned flyers (and also a few anonymous flight attendants) that might be able to give good advice: www.flyertalk.com

Keep the faith, you might yet see your bags, even if they are too late to do you much good in Italy.

I had a bad experience years ago with an airline here in the States. I wrote to every corporate office about my complained. I forget who contacted who, but the main office in N.Y. finally resolved it. I don't think anyone would get anywhere with airline workeers. Either look on line for addresses, send registered letters, or the next time you call. ask whoever you speak to for the main corporate offices' address, and if possible, a name. My issue was the airline was suppose to put my non-english-speaking relatives on the right plane going to N>Y> to catch the Czech plane & I had to pay 3 more airfares to get them there the next day. I got the $650.00 back in free-flight-comp. And don't forget to mention all the extra money you had to spend, toothpaste, etc. by not having your luggage.

As a follow up - my luggage appeared during the night on my doorstep - 21 days after my trip! It was sticky from tons of inspection tape- been "inspected" a bunch of times - but Alitalia never bothered to "inspect" the gigantic name and address tag on it that sais it belonged to me and was 3 weeks overdue! I have sent 2 registered letters to their NYC heaquarters demanding compensation for my trip which they ruined. I have heard nothing - other than a voice message from someone at the Boston desk asking me if I ever got my bag (2 weeks after they delivered it). Sooo - I wait......

My friend who was on my trip STILL does not have her bag - -and they have not called her or responded to her letters to NY. Why doesn't the US have an agency that deals with this sort of criminal activity?? I am going to try my state consumer law and maybe small claims court - but I doubt Alitalia cares about that either.

Hi Dorgal: I'm really sorry for your problems. We had the same thing last year. They are totally unresponsive. Our friends were leaving us and going to Assisi. They were taking Alitalia from Perugia to Milan and home. Alitalia never told them that Perugia airport was closed for renovations and never had a car waiting to take them to a different airport.

They never notified ticketed customers that they were not flying from Dulles anymore. I found out when I called to confirm my tickets. Some people actually checked in and were never told they didn't have a return trip! I told them when we arrived in Milan to change planes. When they went to the desk to get a return trip....they were told they couldn't help them and they had to contact Alitalia later!

Alitalia doesn't care about anything.....least of all their passengers.

This year we took Air France because I will never fly Alitalia again. We ran into the Air France strike. Air France handled it so much better....not perfect but they showed they cared about their customers. I will be happy to fly them again.

To answer your question, no there isn't much more you can do with a non-responsive airline that doesn't care.

As a suggestion, try CSA travel insurance. I think they pay more. We have had a lot of luck with them. In fact, they are the ones who actually found the lost luggage. When we called Catania airport Alitalia would pick up the phone and hang it up. CSA had the luggage to the hotel when we arrived in Rome a few days later.

Dorgal-this is what you do: You file a complaint with the US Department of Transportation's AVIATION CONSUMER PROTECTION DIVISION here:

http://airconsumer.ost.dot.gov/problems.htm

They'll take it from there.

Girlspytravel: I think even though it was last year, I will try filing a complaint with the website you mentioned. I don't expect they can do anything now, but as long as they have it in their records I'll be happy.

In July we returned from Europe by Alitalia. Lost luggage. It appearde on my deck aftre 12 midnight. Two items were broken inside the bags. They refuse to pay from them - classified as valuables and not recoverable. One was a snow globe.

I am also from Bosotn and had to go to Logan Airpot almost every day since their 800 tel number is never answered. However, thier Italian language website does have a direct number for Boston.

Had many other problmes with them far to numerous to mention. Glad you got your luggage and forget about delaing with them.

Alitalia used to be a great airline to fly, with courteous and attentive service, and good food. Unfortunately, it has declined in recent years.
That being said, I've only had one problem with them -- two years ago on a flight from ny/rome/milan, my bag didn't make the connecting flight from Rome to Milan.

That's apparently a frequent occurrence, and the airline personnel in Milan were not surprised or concerned, and they gave me a case with toiletries to tide me over. The bag arrived at my hotel in Bellagio late the next afternoon. The wheels were broken and it was useless and I wound up having to buy a new suitcase.

I'm sure there was no connection between the two events, but my return flight from Milan to NY was overbooked and I was given a free upgrade to business class. I was so thrilled with that I didn't even bother filing a claim about the suitcase.
Sometimes you take the good with the bad.

I agree, Alitalia is the worst travel experience we ever had even though they did't lose our luggage!

Just returned from 3 wks. in France with no luggage. It was no big deal(I pack a great carry-on). Continental returned our luggage 3 days after we got home. Actually, it was kind of nice not having so much stuff to haul around. So maybe that is the way to travel.

Don't dispair, with everything being computerized, they will probably find your luggage soon.

TPAYT: "Actually, it was kind of nice not having so much stuff to haul around. So maybe that is the way to travel."

hhhhhhmmmmmmm that is exactly what my husband said when our luggage didn't make changing planes with Lufthansa and it was delivered to our home the next night.

We usually do carry-on, but coming home from Italy or France we have wine and Limoncella to carry. We take our chances with luggage on the return trip.

my experiences with Alitalia have all been pleasent, no drama and luggage upon arrival (excuse me while I go slaughter a bull to appease the luggage demons). When I went to Morocco this past September my luggage did not arrive with me, along wioth all my Etro and Ted Baker (and no small carry on- I had nothing but my back pack of photo equipment) - I resigned myself to going to the Ville Nouvelle area and buying a new piece of luggage (leather is suppose to be a specialty there) and clothing (I would blend in because I was dressed like a local). Yes - a pain. Yes- an added expense. But these things happen when one travels. There are worse things. I did not let lost luggage "ruin" my trip. My luggage arrived the next day but it was an interesting problem to work through. There is only so much planning one can do - it is after all travel - not some tidy Disneyesque experience. Would like to hear about the highlights of your time in Italy with your daughter.

This story illustrates the value that trip insurance can offer. Just purchase the version with no trip cancellation protection; it's quite inexpensive and provides coverage for emergency medical, trip delay, trip interruption, lost baggage, etc.). You would have funds from the insurance company to deal with no clothes, etc.

Dorgal,
They lost DD's luggage over a year ago, then "lost" her in their computer system, then we put a claim in with our homeowners insurance (suggest you do this with yours) and after a year, Altialia sent her a check for $658 (or 500 Euros at that time).

Good luck! Yes, we'll never fly them again either. As much as we love Italy, we dislike this airline!

just came home from a months trip to europe, part of which was in southern italy- we flew delta into brussels and alitalia from there to rome, flight then to naples- my husbands suitcase did not arrive-in possitana had hotel calling everyday to find out where his luggage was- when in capris they called everday as well- was told tags must have fallen off- fortunately in the suitcase that he carried on he had his shoes, toiletries as well as some extra shirts, sweaters and an extra pair of underwear all of which i snuck in, as he likes to travel light and his dream came true-but this was ridiculous- he is a big guy and impossible to find clothes in this part of italy in his size- to make a long story short, we had to go back to naples airport to catch a flight to catania as we were going to taormino,sicily- when back at the airport he got an agent to let him into lost and found- yes his suitcase was there wrapped up with tape with all tags on it including name tag- it had been there from oct 20th, we flew in on oct 19th- after we took tape off we found that the zipper was destroyed- for a 129 euros he bought a new suitcase- alitalia offered to give him a 75 euro voucher toward our next flight with them, like we would ever fly that airline again- we are still waiting for the cash refund, although 75 euros will not cover the price of the new suitcase or make up for the aggravation- i plan to call alitalia after thanksgiving- i guess we were lucky to have found the suitcase as we still had 21 days left on our vacation- on the lighter side my husband had stated the one thing he was happy about was that it was not my suitcase- yup, they would have carried me away in a straight jacket-

judy

I strongly recommend that you write to Chris Elliott, ombudsman for National Geographic Traveler Magazine, (chris@elliott.org) whose business it is to help people with travel problems. He got me a 600 Euro reimbursement from Iberia airlines after I tried for 10 months with no success. He's terrific.

I would never fly Alitalia based on this post.

I watched a news show a year or so ago about lost luggage and it appears that Alitalia was not the only airline to have a terrible track record. It's become a major issue with many other carriers as well. I believe US Air had the worst track record. More than 2.8 million bags are lost by airlines worldwide in a year.

Airlines make a small fortune in the cargo business and often when your luggage is late arriving it is a result of being offloaded to accommodate last minute cargo.

There is a store in Alabama that buys "unclaimed luggage" by the ton and sorts the items to sell. In this news story some of the items even had famous people's names engraved or embroidered (so why weren't they returned to the rightfull owner...they aren't exactly unidentified). Here is the website
http://www.unclaimedbaggage.com/

Here is a link to the Story from ABC News. Who know how much the airlines make from selling lost luggage. Shocking really.

Sorry..here is the link

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Story?id=249092&page=2

Alitalia may not be the worst on losing luggage, but they are the worst on connecting it to the owner.

When Lufthansa lost our luggage they clicked into the computer and told us exactly where it was and when it would be delivered to my home. It was there when they said.
Alitalia can't find the end of their nose no less get luggage to you.

The funny thing was that when Lufthansa lost our luggage we had to connect to BA. At the desk when we checked into BA the agent asked where our luggage was. We told them Lufthansa lost it. She said, "Oh, good, now we can't lose it." Yes, we all laughted.

Dorgal,

What a nightmare! I'm glad eventually you got it.

I'll try as much as possible never to fly them!

Hi Dorgal,

Just an FYI, Travelex is $300 maximum per article (not total), up to the policy limit (which is $1,000 - $2,500, depending which policy you purchased) for a lost bag. But we know that they have to check with the airline to verify what was paid for, prior to paying a claim. I suppose they have as much luck as we do in reaching Alitalia?

Travelex does have benefits for baggage delay too - if you saved your receipts for necessities you purchased to replace things, I'd have them at least pay for that (up to policy limits) until you find out if your bag is lost indefinitely.

Thanks & good luck to you!