jazztania

My husband and I traveled to Rome via Alitalia on 12/31/04. Sadly 3 days into our vacation, my husbands father died and we had to return to NY immediately.

When we told Alitalia of our situation, they were very unsympathetic and told us there were no available seats on the next flight at the price we originally paid ($650 r/t each). So, we had to purchase 2 new tickets at a cost of an additional $1,750 each ticket. We were not able to use the return part of our original tickets. I have heard that airlines no longer offer bereavement fares, but was told that for a penalty fee of $200, we should have been able to change the date of our flight.

At the time we were just overcome with grief and our only concern was getting back home for the funeral. I feel that at such a vulnerable time, Alitalia took advantage of this.

When we questioned Alitalia about the exorbitant cost of each ticket, we were told we could go on standby, but the flight was sold out and we probably would not get on. However, after purchasing our tickets and boarding the flight, we counted at least 7 empty seats.

Since we have never been involved in anything like this, I am not sure how to proceed. I have contacted American Express to see if there is anything they can do on their end to reduce the cost of these tickets, but I was wondering if anybody had something similar happen? If so, how did you handle it? We're still mourning the death of my father in law, and at the same time very concerned at the additional bill from Alitalia of $3,500.

By the way, Alitalia never once even so much as offered an "I'm sorry for your situation" or even tried to assist us. They treated us as if we were an inconvenience. It was a terrible experience.

nbbrown

Jazztania, I haven't had an experience like this, but just wanted to offer my condolences, and say I am sorry for a trip cut short by tragedy. I hope you can get this worked out.

BTilke

My condolences for your husband's loss. I had to fly to the U.S. from Europe on short notice in September when my father died and flew Continental. They were very helpful in finding me the lowest fare (a sale fare lower than the bereavement fare; they waived the advance purchase requirement). I didn't know exactly when I would return and just picked a date out of my hat. I had to change it and Continental told me I would be able to change the return date for up to 30 days after my original return date at no extra charge as long as I provided a copy of the death certificate. They were helpful throughout. So sorry you didn't have better response from Alitalia during a very stressful time. Admittedly it was the holidays and their flights were probably well booked, but they could have been kinder.
Re the empty seats, that's hard to tell. The seats may have been left empty because the plane had reached its weight limit or other reasons, but nonetheless, you didn't get the best treatment.
See what happens with Amex. If you get no resolution there, perhaps you should try the ombudsman column at one of the travel magazines--Conde Nast's Traveler, I believe. Perhaps a little bit of "name and shame" in this case might prod Alitalia into a more gracious response, but perhaps not.

cyberUK

Hi Jazztania,

My wife and I had a very similar situation while we were in Florence last March. We received a call at 3:30 AM at our hotel, that one of our children had been injured.

I had booked all of our air and hotels through American Express Travel. I called them to arrange a change in our departure.
There was nothing available on Alitalia to change to. We had to drive to Rome, and pay 1700 per coach ticket.
No refund for our unused ticket because the oneway fare to Rome was more than we had paid for the round trip.

American Express could do nothing either.
I know the feeling of panic and frustration, and I can sympathize with the need to just get home as fast as possible.
I'm sorry for your emotional and financial loss.

GAC

jazztania: first of all, my sympathies for your loss.

You have been treated very shabbily by Alitalia, and unfortunately, I doubt you'll get any redress from them, unless you happen upon a very sympathetic employee who is willing to make some sort of a financial accommodation (I'd say the chances of this happening are close to zero).

You should have been able to change the return portion of your original ticket for a surchange of $200 each, rather than having to purchase two one-way, undiscounted economy seats. Alitalia should have advised you of this (unless your particular ticket was unusually restrictive, which I doubt).

I suspect that you happened upon an Alitalia employee who was very angry at Americans in general, opposed to the policies of the current Administration, etc. (perhaps a member of a certain political party which shall remain nameless).

As far as the 7 empty seats on your flight, don't make much of this. I expect that the flight was overbooked (many AZ flights are), and there were numerous no-shows on your flight.

You've been very unlucky. Sorry.

GAC

One afterthought:

I don't know whether the "$200 change rule" applies when there are only undiscounted seats left on the newly rescheduled return flight. In other words, I don't know whether Alitalia was perfectly within their rights to ask for a fully undiscounted coach fare if IN FACT, there were no discounted seats left on that particular flight. Common sense would dictate that the "$200 change rule" should apply even in this case, but sometimes, common sense does not dictate the actual result.

Andre

jazztania,

my condolences for your husband's loss.

Regarding your situation, I have the following comments:

1) Alitalia was within its rights in acting the way it did, if it applied the rules governing the ticket you purchased.

2)Their attitude was clearly more than lacking - not that surprising I suppose given the current employee morale there (and it wasn't exactly a customer-oriented company to begin with...).

Regarding such situation in general I have the following advice:

1) Unless you take trip interruption insurance, you will be relying on the kindness of strangers in such emergency situations. You could be lucky like BTilke was or unlucky (like you were).

2) In such situations, don't forget that you often have other options besides just upgrading your existing fare. If you can, take the time to shop around and why not book a cheap return ticket from your vacation destination - just use the outbound half and throw away the rest. I would try and locate a good travel agent and let her/him do the legwork.

Hope this helps,
Andre

LoveItaly

jazztania, Alitalia has become a Horrible Airline!

I am so sorry what you and your husband had to go through.

Alitalia, many years ago was a wonderful airline. Now even the Italians try to avoid them if at all possible.

I am sure you know they have had tremendous financial problems.

I to would say the fact that some seats on the airline were empty could mean (no shows) or whatever.

The surly attitude you received IMHO has nothing to do with American-Italian politic differences. It has to do with the very unhappy and grumpy employee who work for Alitalia. Unhappy empoyees make for poor cutomer relations. And probably they did not have any seats left in the catagory that you have originally paid.

And no doubt, because Alitalia does have financial problems the employees have no say in making exceptions. So financial problems and surley employees made a horrible experience as well as a terrible financial problem for you.

I would write to AMEX and Alitalia as well and then after thirty days contact Conde Nast to see if there is anyway they can help. I doubt it but I have always notice that they expect travelers to first do all they can do before they are willing to get involve.

BTW, one time in Italy I received a phone call from home, my daughter was very ill. I had r/t on KLM. At 7.00am the next morning on was on a KLM flight. The cost was $150.00 for the ticket change. However, and I do feel this made a big difference my KLM r/t tickets had cost a lot more then the basic flight because of the length of time I was planning to stay in Italy.

Again, I, like all others, are so sorry for this obviously miserable and heartbreaking situation you had. I hope all of you are feeling a bit better, but it does take time.

LoveItaly

jazztania, just another thought. If you do write to Alitalia may I gently suggest that you do NOT berate their airline, the employee(s) etc. This will get you nowhere. And of course do not tell them you will never fly with them again etc.

Just wanted to mention this because I worked for an airline for one year in Marketing and so many people that wrote in to complain would bash the airline stating they would never set foot on one of their planes again. Needless to say they got nothing resolved as the airline just looked at them as a lost cause.

Good luck to you.

Patty

jazztania,
I'm very sorry that this happened to you, but I think you may be stuck with the cost of these tickets. If you look at the penalty for changing a restricted ticket on most airlines, it's usually the change fee (in this case $200) in addition to any difference in fares. Very seldom is there a flat change fee. So it could have very well been that it was less expensive to purchase 2 new tickets. That doesn't mean that Alitalia couldn't have been more accomodating or sympathetic, but I think there's very little recourse here. I don't see how Amex can do anything about it either. I believe travel insurance may have covered the cost of the new tickets. Contacting CNT Ombudsman is a good idea and some negative publicity might be the only way to convince Alitalia to come up with some sort of goodwill gesture.

gualalalisa

Jazz: What a horrible experience in every way - I am so sorry.

I had a similar experience to BTilke when I got ill in Seattle and had to return home early on Alaska Airlines. Though the person on the phone told me to bring a doctor's note, the gate agent never asked to see it and the Alaska personnel at SeaTac could not have been nicer and more concerned.

Because of that, I always try to fly Alaska. Because of your experience, I promise you I will never fly Alitalia!

Take care.

P.S. Sadly, I think GAC may be right about someone being angry with the U.S. which, IMHO, really sucks!

ira

Hi Jazz,

Very sorry to hear of your loss.

Have you written to the CEO of Alitalia?

If you cannot get a reasonable response from the airline, I suggest that you write the Ombudsman at Conde' Nast Traveler, 4 Times Sq., NY NY 10036.

lincasanova

first, my condolences.hopefully you can get some return if only small, to help offset the additonal financial burden.

let this be a reminder to all of us... when we travel.. are we covered by insurance if something similar happens? do our credit cards hold a type of insurance we perhaps are not even aware of to help counter the extra expense when close family member is hospitalized?

if not.. how can we cover ourselves? how much is travel insurance?
these are quaestions we need to ask ourselves before the event.

hopefully we never need to make use of it.

nks267

Check this out:
www.alitaliasucks.com

rkkwan

Just wonder if you've tried the other airlines - including those based in the US? You should have simply forgotten about Alitalia once they said they couldn't change your return flight. You should be able to get bereavement (or not) fares of <$1,750 each on some of the US-based airlines to return to the US.

jmb67

First, I want to give my condolences.

I agree with LoveItaly regarding letter writing. During a strike last year, my Alitalia flight was cancelled (a message left on my phone machine). I was just to informed to call Alitalia. They did not state they had changed my flight to another airline. In the meantime, I was trying to reschedule my tour without success.

After a lot of phone calls, I wrote a letter to Alitalia. I stated that I really liked Alitalia, but that an answer to my question regarding credit or refund could not be answered by any Alitalia employee. I simply stated that this concerns me and how could Alitalia restore my confidence in them.

Not only did I receive a refund, I also received a 100.00 gift certificate towards my next flight.

LoveItaly

jmb67, good for you! Truthfully I am amazed that Alitalia did anything (expect maybe for a certificate) but thankfully they did.

So letter writing would sure be the way to approach this problem jazztania. Hopefully you will be pleasantly surprised. Take care.

socialworker

Hello jazztania--I also am sorry for the sad situation in which you found yourselves with no one willing to try to help. I hope you get some recognition of your plight from someone at Alitalia, Amex or at least that Conde Nast column which has published stories of problems that people have encountered. On a completely separate note, I must say that GAC should be ashamed of him/herself for using your problem to make a gratuitous political comment.

Patrick

socialworker, has another post by GAC been removed? I don't see what he's said here that he should be ashamed of. Like others he thinks the action taken by them is inexcusable. Are you referring to the comment that a disgruntled employee may have had something against Americans? Well, don't you think that could be the case? Why should GAC be ashamed for bringing that up?

GAC

Message for Socialworker:

You evidently don't have great experience with political parties and political discourse in Italy. If you did, you would know that a large number of individuals of a certain political persuasion have an extremely antagonistic opinion of Americans and especially of the U.S. government. I know this from personal experience.

Nevertheless, I should give the Alitalia employee the benefit of the doubt, and retract my earlier statement, as I really don't have any basis for making the assertion.

I can tell you, however, that it is not totally uncommon for Americans to get particularly shabby treatment from Italians who are "die-hard" ideologues of a certain political persuasion, just as it can happen that Italians and other foreigners are not always given the best treatment by all Americans.

So, I have nothing to be ashamed about, because I speak from a great deal of personal experience.