The pilots strike MarkY mentioned was only one of 2 scheduled. The link he gives says the one for September 10 has been postponed, but the same page indicates that the one set for September 17 is still on.

This, I am sorry, is freakin' hilarious LOL!!! I am flying on Alitalia 9/11 (so I am allowed to make light of this!)

"CUB, the most radical of Alitalia's more than 10 unions, said its members would begin what it is calling a "rotating hunger strike" in which four Alitalia employees do not eat for one day and are followed by four other employees the following day." (from this link:http://www.iht.com/articles/537731.html)

ThongLori.... it's nice that you can laugh at this, must be the thong. ;)

I'm flying British Air from Phoenix to London and Alitalia from London to Milan on September 15th. Hopefully, all will be well.

I have to chuckle. How does Alitalia stay in business. We're arriving in the morning of the 17th, and the pilots are striking at 10:00 that morning. Now, that's great timing. ((a)) I hope any fodorites departing on the 17th are leaving before 10am.

What a way to run a railroad. I have not planned my trip around all the strikes -- I guess I've just been lucky. ((b))

I'm actually flying on September 17 at 7:30 pm NY time, which is after the strike (which is set for 10am to 6pm Italy time). However, my flight is on a plane that obviously must first come in from Rome, on a flight that is supposed to leave Rome at 12:30 pm. So, the strike may be over when I leave (assuming they are still in business), but there may be no plane to fly!
I'd cry if I didn't laugh!

OK! Now I'm nervous too! My husband and I are meeting in Venice on 9/30. I am flying in from Pittsburgh via US Air, but my husband will be in Germany on business and is flying Alitalia from Dusseldorf, Germany to Venice. We are meeting that morning! What will we do if his flight gets cancelled? I already checked for other flights but none get him in by late morning, and all of the flights are expensive. We purchased his ticket thru Travelocity. I just emailed them my concern, we'll see what they have to say. Could my husband take an overnight train from Dusseldorf, Germany to Venice? Does anyone have any info on this? I went on RailEurope's site but didn't get specifics, as far as routes. What a nightmare if this all happens!

Just thought of this. Is Alitalia run by the Italian government? I think I saw that somewhere. If so, I doubt that they (gov.) will leave thousands of tourists high and dry (not to mention furious) and lose the money you would spend there and goodwill of many. Tourism is probably one of Italy's most important sources? What do you think?

Berlusconi didn't get where he is today by failing to deliver on his threats. The threat to close the airline comes directly from the Italian government - which doesn't run the airline, but does own 62% of the shares.

I'd say there are only three real possibilities:
- the unions accept, by more or less Sept 15, the current round of cuts, or some acceptable, but slightly watered-down version. Clocks can be stopped in European negotiations, so don't be surprised if they're all still locked in smoke-filled rooms on Sep 16. That, BTW, is what my money would go on
- the airline goes bust (losing jobs may not frighten them that much) on Sep 15
- most of the unions accept, but the lunatic fringe runs disruptive programmes after September 15 to delay and distort the implementation ofthe cuts.

But don't expect any goodies from Berlusconi. There are more important things than a few thousand pissed off tourists

tennisgirl,

Check out:
www.hlx.com

They have flights from Köln/Bonn airport, which can be easily reached by train from Düsseldorf in 35-50 min., to Venice. You might just want to purchase a ticket as a precaution (especially if your husband's Alitalia ticket is on a refundable fare).

Unfortunately, there's only 1 flight a day leaving at 19:00 and arriving at 20:20, so perhaps your husband can fly in the evening before. Currently fares are EUR 99 all in for the Sept. 29 flight and EUR 119 all in for the Sept. 30 flight.

Train connections to the airport can be found at:
http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

Enter "Koeln Bonn Airport" as the arrival station.

You can also use that site to search for night trains, although there are no direct connections, the "best" route involves one change in Munich and takes over 14 hours...

Hope this helps,
Andre

Just fabulous. I booked directly with Alitalia to Rome on 9 October, and have already paid the deposit on a flat for the week.

One thing I hadn't previously realized about the Alitalia situation until I started reading more articles, is that Berlusconi does not have a free hand. Any governmment bailout is subject to approval from the European Union (HQ in Brussels). Some commentators are saying that the union response is likely to result in the demise of Alitalia.

According to the WSJ: "Much depends on the airline's creditors. If they are willing to take another chance on Alitalia and support the capital increase, Brussels probably will allow the carrier to stay afloat. Otherwise, the solution may be bankruptcy followed by resurrection as a new, slimmed down flagship. That happened with Belgium's Sabena in November 2001. When unions refused to accept job cuts, Sabena stopped flying and has since been relaunched as SN Brussels Airlines."

We flew Alitalia 2 weeks ago from Venice to Naples. I can tell you part of the reason they might be going out of business -- they never bothered to charge us for the tickets! We booked the tickets months ago, and still have yet to be charged!

I think this is good news.

I just read it on the BBC site:


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/3839343.stm

"Alitalia agrees cost cutting plan"

OOOOPs, sorry article was from June.

I think it will depend on whether you are booked on a Delta ticket or an Alitalia ticket and on your method of payment. I think that the Italian gov't will keep them in the air. They are second last on my list of airlines that I have flown on but plan to avoid like the plague in the future.
I have tried them three times. Others may have better experiences. I am just about to book on Volare, the low cost airline in Italy. COuld be a bit of a chance but the prices are much lower and the service is probably on par.

Thanks Andre for all of that wonderful information! I really appreciate that. I will look into it. My husband feels we should just wait it out. I called his travel agent and she assures us that we won't be left "high and dry", that even if the airline folds another airline will get him to his destination?? His ticket is non-refundable, so to change anything there is of course a hefty change fee. I'll keep you posted. Thanks.

I have a ticket on Alitalia booked through Delta. I spoke with a Delta agent last Friday who told me that since I was a ticketed passenger, Delta would "protect" me in case Alitalia was no longer flying. (This assumes that Delta won't be going bankrupt either.)

The Delta agent advised me to wait it out because changing tickets now would cost me a large penalty fee.
So I am going to wait and hope.

Just in case it might help, here is some info I looked at today. I felt a little better after finding it.

http://fodors.com/forums/pgMessages....=3&start=0

I am also flying Alitalia on Oct.15th to
Florence and am unsure what to do? Anyone know who to call?

Who to call about what?

If you want a prediction about how all this will pan out, call a fortune teller.

If you want certainty your plane will take off with you on it, cancel and book with a solvent airline. Alitalia may not have been closed yet, but it's broke. And Europe doesn't keep broke airlines flying.

Anything else is a judgement call. Anyone who claims they "know" or who "assures you other airlines will honour tickets" is a charlatan.

Maybe - maybe - the unions will see sense. But that opens the way to a swathe of job losses in the whole of the Italian public sector, so don't bank on it.

Maybe the Italian government will back down. But that almost guarantees the EU will declare the loan illegal. And if the EU doesn't, BA will take both the EU and the Italian government to the European Court almost instantly. So don't bank on that.

This, I'm afraid, is an occasion where no-one knows nuffin.