Alitalia?
 

I have been holding off buying tickets on Alitalia for next fall. Is there any news on their financial situation or possible bankruptcy? They have the best times for the flights I need.

All is not lost yet. Several companies are interested in buying them out. I'm still choosing them for flights, since I live in Italy and they're usually the most convenient choice. Usually when an airline fails, there is a way to get all passengers with tickets to their destination. To be safe, I suggest buying them and then getting trip insurance. Make sure airline failure is covered.

I am flying with them next month.
see if they have a codeshare option with Delta for your flights. And book through Delta
i cannot say for certain but this may buy you a little insurance.

I believe all Alitalia flights between Italy and the US are codeshared with Delta. Whenever I book a flight to the US on Alitalia, the equipment and crew are Delta when travelling to the US and Alitalia on the way back. I would think Delta would guarantee these US-Italy flights if Alitalia were to fail, but I'm not an expert on these matters.

The flights I am looking at are within UK and Italy and in Italy. Our international flights are with British Airways. I will look at Delta’s website.Thanks for your replies.

HappyTrvlr: your story is just like mine. We have flights within Italy and the Alitalia scedules for one of those were the best, in fact were just what I wanted. I hesitated for months, then finally bought the tickets from Rome to Palermo on AZ yesterday. And I bought travel insurance. Of course my credit card will reimburse me for any charges that Alitalia can't fulfill, but the insurance may offer a little help if we are delayed because they disappear. It does include trip delay by more than three hours.

Thanks tuscanlifeedit. Oir flights would be LHR to Bari via FCO Bari to Palermo via FCO and Catania to LHR. All land reservations are in place. The insurance is a very good idea. There are also trains and ferries!

None of the direct flights from London to Bari are from LHR where our international flight lands at night. We may do the BA out of LGW but it seems easier to leave from LHR and transfer in Rome. We will wait until we return from Japan in April to book these October flights. Thanks to everyone who replied.

I checked in and obtained a boarding pass last night for my trip on Alitalia for Rome. I have Global Entry but the boarding pass did not indicate TSA Precheck.
Does anyone know if when I check in at the Alitalia counter in Miami, and present my known traveler number to the agent, can I have the indicator placed on a new boarding pass.
The reason I ask is that if I cannot I will rearrange my carry on so that I can more easily grab the things I need to show them at security.. I am not used to having to pull things out. I am assuming that there is TSA Precheck available for flights on a non US airline in the US.
Thanks.

I just used Google and discovered that Alitalia is not a participating airline. So now I know

I don't think any non-US carriers have TSA precheck.

Can I Use TSA Precheck for International Flights? | Travel + Leisure

We just flew Alitalia from Cairo to Rome. The legroom was absolutely horrible. My husband is 6' and he couldn't even get his legs under the seat in front of us. If we are ever scheduled to fly on Alitalia again I will rebook with another airline.

For legroom, Alitalia is about average, and the difference between the best and the worst is minimal.

My concern is that they are still in business when our travel begins.. These flights we would book are all within Italy except for LHR to Rome RT.

This has been an issue for some time now, the "will they still be flying" issue. I booked last year FCO-Cairo for flights in late fall, before I realized, and wish I hadn't had to think about it for the months leading up to it, should have booked on Egypt Air instead. Then there was a transport strike in Rome the day of the flight to Cairo, circumvented by booking a car service, but it seems if it isn't one thing it's another. You could book trains instead of the Alitalia flights, if you haven't booked them already, and hope for the best. Since I've been to Italy now a number of times, it's all annoyed me to the extent that I've decided I've had enough Italy to last me for the duration (not that it'll be all that long at this point). I'll concentrate on countries with different annoyances.

Mme Perdu, it's too late now for you, but I'd like to remind everyone who's going to Rome that the airport trains always operate during strikes - both the Leonardo da Vinci from Termini station and the FL1 from other stations in Rome.

Even if Alitalia goes belly up, there should be some provision for getting people to their destination. For international flights, the code share partners should step in. For domestic flights, they'll probably have a provision to continue operating until all upcoming flights have been completed. And, as Mme Perdu says, there is always the train, which for short and medium distances is usually better than flying anyway.

Reporting back that all of our four flights on Alitalia were fine, no delays. We worried they’d go out of business by the time our trip started.