Any ideas for Alitalia backup plans?
 

First off...I know, I know. I was stupid to book on Alitalia. For some reason, though I have researched everything down to the best gelato shop, I did not plan my airline choice well enough.

Anyhoo...we're traveling from Paris to Rome (April 29), then back to Paris (May 5) one day before departing for Miami. Any ideas on backup Paris/Rome roundtrip travel?

Is anyone else facing this impending Alitalia meltdown? What have you planned in case of cancellations?

TIA for the help.

We just flew on EasyJet from Paris Orly airport to Rome. They were great!

we're on alitalia, too, from JFK NY to Milan, then Mlan to Venice in mid-May. Called for seats to find last leg of trip into venice was cancelled! we're sailing out of venice that day! they put us on a later flight, but now i'm worried about further cancellations making us miss the boat! Our first port is Athens, so guess we could fly into there. Did you pay for tx or use miles?

I'm going to check EasyJet, etc. and see how much their fares are.

We paid for our tix way back in October. My trip insurance, naturally, had Alitalia on their "we won't pay if they go out of business" list. Again, lesson learned for next time -- I didn't know this list existed.

We got a relatively low fare, so if it's the worst case and we have to walk away from it and book something else, we will. But, I would hate to buy another ticket, and our original flights go. OTOH, I don't want to end up in Rome desperately seeking a ride back to Paris at the last minute with all the other Alitalia leftovers. What a mess!

how can we find out the likelihood of alitalia's collapsing before we travel?-or should we just dump them and make other arrangements now?

"how can we find out the likelihood of alitalia's collapsing before we travel?-"

Well, there can't be an authoritative source. There are lots of people having lots of talks, they've all got different agendas, and to add to the fun the lamentable Berlusconi is trying to make Alitalia an issue in the elections on Sunday.

In the meantime, the company's got €170 million in the kitty and is losing "only" €1 mn a day. So it's unlikely it'll arbitrarily cancel flights because of a cash shortage in the next few weeks. Might arbitrarily cancel flights because of strikes, broken computers or someone's Macchievellian attempt to make a point - but that's not that different from any other airline.

If the airline does go bust or get put into some kind of administration, it'll be after the election, and after the new government has added its few eurocents to the debate.

Whoever's returned to power on Monday will be trying to get some buyer to the negotiating table. My guess is that the agony will drag on for a couple of weeks (Burlusconi has some fantasy about finding Italian companies dumb enough to shell out for this bloodsucker).

The morals, IMHO, are:

- if you're contemplating going to Italy, don't book on Alitalia
- if you're booked on Alitalia for the next two to three weeks, you're probably OK as long as the flight's not affected by its planned withdrawal from Malpensa, in which case it'll be making some kind of alternative arrangement anyway.
- if you're booked on Alitalia after early May, I'd be worried. Set up a Google News alert for Alitalia to get daily updates and do a daily search on the BBC website. You can get a free two-week subscription to the Wall Street Journal website, and this might be a good time to get one
- Mistrust all forecasters on this subject. Even me

Thanks for the excellent summary, flanneruk. Unfortunately, I have become a recent expert on all things Alitalia and the upcoming Italian election. (Who knew a vacation would lead to such an educational experience?)

Anyway, as my flights are booked for the next four weeks, I'm am keeping a very close eye on the situation by checking Google every day for updates. Search "Alitalia" and the most recent new stories will come up.

bbobo -- We checked all possibilities, including cancelling our Rome portion and staying in Paris, or walking away from our Alitalia tix and buying new ones on another carrier. Either option was too expensive for us, so we're sticking with our original plan, watching the news, and just going with backup emergency ideas if we get stuck by them once we get there.

I'm afraid we are really on the bubble, timewise. We'll see after this weekend's election what the future holds.

No point in imagining anything about Alitalia until after this weekend's legislative elections.

Starting Monday, the winner will certainly be questioned immediately about the Italian government's plans for the airline.

Just to clarify the Alitalia's liquidity position. Allegedly, €170m is "cash and short-term credit" (ie equivalent of overdraft), so it's not all cash. Some may remember that the collapse of Swissair was triggered when UBS decided not to extend the committed loans.

Yes, I saw yesterday that they had enough money for the "very short term," which I hope means "until at least May 6" and not "for the next 48 hours."

Just wondering what, if anything, you guys that are holding Alitalia tix have decided to do.

I sure wish someone would give some solid information about what existing ticketholders should expect and/or do.

Well, y'all know that Berlusconi is now premier-elect. So AF bid would be clearly out. It's a race against time--if Mr Berlusconi can come up with legit local consortium to bid on AZ, or if AZ runs out of cash.

The latest twist is, that now the cash burn seems to be €3.5m a day, and there are reports that the Italian civil aviation authority/IATA may revoke license unless AZ can prove adequate liquidity. Eerie reminiscent of the last day of Swiss Air when they allegedly had to fly with trunkful of cash to pay for the fuel bill (though this seems rather far-fetched urban myth to me)...

In Berlusconi's press conference today, he said that there was "no reason" that Alitalia could not find Italian investors to save it. Let's wait maybe 2 or 3 weeks and see what he says then.

>>Let's wait maybe 2 or 3 weeks and see what he says then.<<

See, that's my problem...my first flight is 2 weeks from today, and my second flight is 3 weeks from today. :-<

shelly-m I'm happy to see you're trying to take this into your own hands. I can tell you from experience that you can not depend on Alitalia to help you when they go out. I wouldn't trust them one second. People we flew with checked in and flew to Milan and then Venice. No one ever told them they didn't have a flight home because Alitalia was not flying out of Washington DC anymore. We told them. When they tried to get help at the airport, no one would help them. So from Venice they had to get help. The list goes on.

I'm sorry you are having this trouble.

we don't fly until may 16 and come home AF, so if we get there i'll be thankful. going on delta miles who said if alitalia tanks they'll try to help us find an alternative--need to catch a ship in venice! ('try' being the operative word) thanks, for Google news alert suggestion-you get many perspectives, and who knows??? no one!

We're waiting. Leave here on May 24- flying Delta. Have 3 flights on Alitalia- Rome-Catania, Catania-Rome-Athens. I'm not too worried as long as we make it to Rome. Delta has said that they would arrange for other flights if there was a problem, but who knows how that will go. There were several other carriers that flew between Rome and Athens that didn't seem to be too expensive- I don't want Delta to route us through Prague/Paris etc. I would rather spring for the $130.00 to fly direct to Athens from Rome. I'll be happy as long as I get there.

I too was stupid, Shelly, and knew nothing about Alitalia's woes until very recently. I have a 20 day Mediterranean cruise coming up in which I've booked myself and my sister into a suite. I couldn't live with the thought of the airline folding anywhere during those 20 days. It was doubtful my very expensive trip insurance would cover it anyway. As a result, I "ate" the two ($2,000) Alitalia roundtrip tickets and booked on Air France. I can use the Alitalia tickets later on for a $230 fee, if they're still standing, and if I feel like going back to Europe before next January. I couldn't wait till the last minute for fear that if they did go belly-up, I would not get us space on another flight in time to make the ship since everybody would be scrambling.

Katherine: I totally know where you are coming from. I can't stand to have loose ends hanging like this -- which is why I booked my tickets so long ago to begin with.

We leave in a few days, and I only need them to hang on until the first week of May, so we decided to go with the "wait and see" approach. At this point, the powers that be over there are too busy talking about what they are going to do, without actually doing anything, so we're hoping to get over and back before they make any decisions one way or the other.

Enjoy your trip. It sounds wonderful!

Here is a great article with ideas for people like me who are holding Alitalia tickets and holding our collective breath.

Hope it helps.

http://tinyurl.com/6fkd73