Fodor's Travel Talk Forums

Fodor's Travel Talk Forums (https://www.fodors.com/community/)
-   Europe (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/)
-   -   Alitalia Seat Reservations (https://www.fodors.com/community/europe/alitalia-seat-reservations-314968/)

FrequentFlyer May 8th, 2003 03:13 PM

Alitalia Seat Reservations
 
We have reservations to fly to Rome later this month on Alitalia. The tickets were paid for with mileage from our Delta frequent flyer account. I have been trying to reach Alitalia on the phone to make seat reservations but no one ever answers the 800 number. I called back to the Delta international reservation line and they told me that Alitalia does not make advanced seat reservations that you get your seat assignment when you arrive at the airport. Can anyone familiar with flying Alitalia verify that this is true? Or can anyone tell me how to contact Alitalia to make seat reservations?? Thanks

joanie1225 May 8th, 2003 04:28 PM

I also have reservations on Alitalia .Made them with a travel agent and was told I couldnt get a seat. I called the 800 number for 2 days and finally got through after being on hold for 10min. They did give me seats and this is for Sept. Keep trying

Mara May 8th, 2003 05:18 PM

I went to Rome from JFK on Alitalia in January. I got my ticket from a travel agent as the price was the same as Alitalia's and I had a lot of trouble with their website. I am quite sure I got the seats when I made the reservation with the TA. I don't believe their 800 number is available at night but when I called to reconfirm I didn't have much problem getting through to a person. They did cancel my flight going but I was able to get on a later flight the same day (JFK instead of EWR). Good luck and have a great time in Rome!
Mara

rhkkmk May 8th, 2003 05:56 PM

i just made reservations through delta for alatalia for next winter (march) and i called alatalia at 800-223-5730 and they gave me seats immediately...they told me that as soon as your res are made that you can request seats (my flight is bos-venice via milan)

susjc May 9th, 2003 06:29 AM

I called Alitalia yesterday regarding the same thing. I am flying LHR to FCO and they said they do not assign seats until check in. I am not looking forward to that (especially if my connecting flight is delayed)! Maybe it depends on what route you are on (or more likely what reservation agent you are talking to).

amyb May 9th, 2003 06:32 AM

Good luck. We didn't have seat assignments and then they claimed that they couldn't put the two of us together. So when we got on the plane, we identified other pairs who were split and managed to get all of us together by swapping seats.

RufusTFirefly May 9th, 2003 06:39 AM

Airlines have a window of time before a flight during which they do not give out seat assignments. If you contact them before or after this window, you get seat assignments. Someone once told me why they did this, but I don't remember the reason.

jspowell May 9th, 2003 08:40 AM

I can confirm what Susjc reported. I just got off the phone with Alitalia (after a lengthy hold time); the agent said that for flights within Europe (which was my case) I could only get a seat assignment at check-in time. The implication was that for transatlantic flights, advance seat assignments are possible.

GARYNFLA May 9th, 2003 01:49 PM

I just read this post, called Alitalia and they assigned my seats pronto for my May 15 flights. They could not have been nicer.It did take 11 minutes before I actually had a person on the other end of the phone..Thanks for the tips. I also called Air France to do the same assignments and was quickly told NO Way for seat assignments prior to check in..

Paula May 10th, 2003 12:08 AM

A couple of days ago I was able to get seat reservations (expedia ticket purchase)through Alitalia after being on hold for 2 sessions at 15 to 20 mins each. Keep trying. The only seat they couldn't book was venice to milan, but the milan to miami got booked just fine. The first part of the trip was through their partnership with Delta and I had seats booked for the outgoing seg within minutes and the rep was SUPER nice and even ended up giving me some suggestions/recommendations for Rome.

RLM May 10th, 2003 12:04 PM

I am so glad this thread was started. I have an Alitalia flight through Delta for 16 May and I just called and got seat assignments. He said they only had a few left where my husband and I could sit together. Thanks everyone for sharing information.
By the way, my return trip is through Air France. Does anyone know if you can book ahead with them too?

FrequentFlyer May 10th, 2003 12:26 PM

Thanks to everyone for their replies to my question. I finally got through on the 800 number this afternoon. By the way I had to try multiple times and was on hold for up to one hour. The time that I finally connected I was only on hold about 15 minutes. Anyway, the Alitalia agent assured me that I already had seat assingments that were made at the same time as the reservations through Delta. However, for some unexplained reason they didn't show in the Alitalia system. Ofcourse this makes me feel a little uneasy but doesn't seem to be much else that I can do except hope for the best. In any case, I will print a copy of this discussion thread and take it with me to the airport.

jspowell May 10th, 2003 12:46 PM

RLM -- the same rules seem to apply to Air France as well as Alitalia. That is, you cannot get advance seat assignements for intra-Europe flights (e.g. Rome to Paris), but you CAN get seat assignments ahead of time for transatlantic flights (e.g. Paris to Atlanta). I just did this yesterday, and was not on hold long with Air France.

Good Luck!

Marianna May 10th, 2003 03:31 PM

Hello FequentFlyer, I can understand your uneasiness with the seat assignment issue with Alitalia. Two years ago, we used FF miles through Continental to purchase our 6 seats to Italy. Continental could not give us seat assignments and we were told to do it through Alitalia. We spent an unbelievable amount of time (hours at a time for many days in a row) trying to reach Alitalia to get seat assignments for 6 people - two of them were our elderly mothers. We thought we had the seat assignments but when we called to confirm a few days before the flight Alitalia said that they do not assign seats until you arrive at the airport - "there is no such thing as seat assignments"! So, unless things have changed in 2 years, don't count on those seats. And, if they say you have them, they will most likely change them on you when you check in at the airport. They did this to us but, after a long discussion, they finally put us all together when they realized we were concerned about not being near our elderly mothers. The seats were amazingly close to the original ones they had assigned us so I always thought that they were doing this to be just plain nasty. That's just the way it was with Alitalia 2 years ago. I hope things work out better for you.

GARYNFLA May 10th, 2003 03:38 PM

You can get seat assignments on Alitalia. I booked with Delts and they are using Alitalia for my flights from Venice to Milan then to Miami. I called yesterday and had my seats quickly with no problem at all.

rhkkmk May 10th, 2003 06:47 PM

GARYNFLA---try air france again...they do the same as does alatalia---i am going to europe on AZ and returning on AF and i have both seat assignments...i am using d/l FF miles for both

RLM May 11th, 2003 06:12 AM

I just talked with Air France and they said I already have a seat assignment for my return flight. What is interesting is that when you call Delta they will not help you with the partner airlines but when you call the partner airline they say that Delta can assign seats. I'm just glad I have seat numbers at this point.

ddd May 11th, 2003 07:12 AM

All travelers on Alitalia should be aware that they have slightly different policies towards seat assignments than other airlines. Even if you have a seat assignment in advance, they will give it away if other people arrive at the airport before you do and need seats.

Therefore, it's a good idea to arrive for your Alitalia flight as early as possible, 2 hours minimum.


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 06:11 PM.