Crazy to book Alitalia for October?
 

I'm looking to get to Rome the first week of October. For nonstop flights, the most reasonable price is Alitalia. They've filed for bankruptcy, but are still flying. How crazy is it to book that?

Pretty crazy IMO. "Bankruptcy" proceedings in the EU are not like they are here. You can't count on an extended reorg plan (unlike ch 11 here) so I wouldn't risk it.

Have you thought about Air One? Boston and Chicago areas.

I have two thoughts:
1) It is a bit of a risk. Even assuming that Alitalia survives, there are likely to be major changes, so your schedule may not be protected.
2) Alitalia is kind of unreliable (and such an awful airline), that I don't think the non-stop provides the same added security, convenience, or comfort that it would with another airline.

Personally, I would book a connecting flight on a better carrier (BA, Northwest, Air France, Delta, Continental, Lufthansa, etc.) before I booked on Alitalia.

<i>Have you thought about Air One?</i>

This doesn't save you from making a connection. It just shifts your connection to Milan from another airport.

Thanks, I figured that was nuts.

So if I'm going to do 1 stop, that leaves Lufthansa (Frankfort connection), United (Wash DC connection) Delta (Cincinnati connection) and US Airways (Philadelphia connection).

Air One only has 2 connection stops (both Palermo and Milan) which seems nuts to me!

I haven't flown to Europe in over 5 years, so any advice on which of these options might be better would be greatly appreciated!

Among Delta, Lufthansa, and United... Each has some positives.

1) If you wanted to pony up the extra money ($350, I think), you could buy Economy+ access on United for you and a companion. This would give you some extra legroom, but whether it is worth it is an open question. Only if you were doing this would United be worth it, IMHO.

2) Delta through Cincinnati would be a pretty easy connection. And I find the Delta product pretty comfortable.

3) Lufthansa should be reliable. I don't think it ever rises to much above ok, but it rarely drops below that. You do get free booze. Delta only gives you a free drink with your meal. The other carriers you mention charge for all drinks.

4) US Airways is about the only one I would not consider. But, if the savings were substantial, then it is just a plane ride, right?

We haven't flown DL or UA much lately, so my comments would be outdated. Have flown LH 8 times in the last 3 yrs and we've not had a bad experience yet (though econ seats pretty small like all of them). Service was good and efficient; food very decent and plentiful. Free drinks before, with, and after dinner (if that makes a difference to you). Several snacks, drinks served thoughout the flight. And when one of our connections (in MUC) ended up being reduced to 20 min, an agent met us at the gate to escort us and both us and the bags made it.

FRA is an older large airport. It's manageable with good signage, but is quite spread out.

Otherwise I agree with travelgourmet especially that CVG would probably be the easiest to connect and that checking on UA's Econo + would be worthwhile.

Thanks so much for your input! It's very much appreciated.

ChiGal,

Where are you flying from? Once you're in major European gateway cities, it is quite easy to fly to Rome. Aside from LH (F'furt or Munich), I would see if you can fly direct to Europe on KLM (Amsterdam), BA (London), Air France (Paris), Swiss (Zurich) etc.

Though I must say I prefer KLM or LH over BA and AF because of easier trasnfer at their hubs.

I'll be flying from Chicago. I didn't see any options from most of the airlines you mentioned, but I'll keep digging. Thanks!

From Chicago, you should be able to choose from Air France, BA, KLM (might be sold as Northwest), and SAS, in addition to the airlines you mentioned. Iberia, BMI, and maybe even LOT, might be possibilities, as well.

Personally, I don't think any of those are appreciably better than Delta or Lufthansa, but BA and Air France are pretty decent. KLM can be okay, but I think the Chicago flight is on a 747 Combi, which is a very uncomfortable plane, and one I would avoid.

American has a non-stop ORD-FCO.

Don't know the fare but it's a possibility.

Whatever you do, don't book Alitalia, as the carrier's new owners are saying they won't guarantee any departures after Sunday.

Getting closer to the end:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7614336.stm

Is there any way to proactively deal with an Alitalia flight booked for October?

We booked non-stop flights from LA to Rome through Delta (codeshare Alitalia). I can't imagine they'll still be running that flight then, but I have no idea what to do since Delta hasn't said anything.

slangevar:

If your ticket was issued by Delta, then you are in relatively good shape. If Alitalia goes under and your flight is canceled, worst case is that you can get a full refund. It's also possible that Delta can find you an alternative flight to Rome for the same price, though it would not be a non-stop.

Blech... we actually paid more to get these tickets because they were non-stop.

They'd better have some option for us... I'm not taking a refund as an option. There's no way that their refund could cover a last-minute ticket to Europe.

An update: I called Delta and none of the reps I talked to had heard anything about the Alitalia problems.

One rep said, &quot;If what you say is true, then I think you'd be smart to change your flight now before something happens. We always do our best to rebook you, but the closer it gets to your departure date, the fewer options you'll have available.&quot;

So we gave up the non-stop to Rome on Alitalia in favor of a layover in Cincinnati on Delta. I feel a lot better and the reduction in the fare covered all of our change fees.

slangevar,

Well done.

As a matter of fact, today's WSJ had a travel column about what to do if you're holding an Alitalia ticket.

http://blogs.wsj.com/middleseat/2008...-need-to-know/

Oh boy, it just gets worse and worse!

I have to say, I'm so grateful to everyone on Fodors for making me aware of what was happening with them.

I have a feeling Delta is about to be swamped with change requests, so I'm glad we got ours in before the melee, when the representatives still had a lot of options and time to help.

Thanks, everyone!