HELP! Alitalia and Bankruptcy/Strike
 

Hi Everyone,

Just read on this site that Alitalia may not be flying after this year?? How strong is the possibility for either a strike or bankruptcy for this spring. I just purchased tickets and now I'm really upset. I called Alitalia and they said all is well and they aren't going bankrupt. Can this be trusted? Is there some where I can go to get more info about this? What do all of you know about this? This is really distressing.

There is already a a thread on Alitalia:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34882562

Alitalia are lying. To a degree that would shame even Bill Clinton or Tony B Liar.

The evidence for this? The Prime Minster of Italy, as quoted by Italy's state-run news agency. See http://tinyurl.com/ydnnem

Will the airline go bust? No-one has the faintest idea. It's to do with who agrees what at what meetings. But the Government of Italy has exhausted its legal rights to subsidise the airline, AZ's only got a couple of months' cash left, it's losing a fortune and anyone who churns out fantasies about "the Italian tourist industry's too important" is displaying woeful ignorance of where decision-making powers lie in Europe.

Any advice you might receive (including mine) about what's going to happen is pure speculation. But Alitalia (or Orbitz) aren't going to give you your money back. So all you can do is protect yourself. And go to Google news and search "alitalia"

When Sabena went bust a few years ago I actually got a refund from Orbitz almost instantaneously.

"I called Alitalia and they said all is well and they aren't going bankrupt. Can this be trusted?"

IMO just as much as you can trust that somebody here who said they might not be flying.

You could say that about a LOT of airlines but that doesn't make it so.

Thanks for the replies . . . this whole thing with Alitalia makes me very unhappy. I had reservations about booking with them to begin with, but went ahead with it because the price and schedule through Orbitz was what we wanted. I can only hope if they go belly-up that Orbitz will refund our money. Well, I guess we just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best for all of us who have booked with them for next year.

You can always buy trip insurance. Some will cover in case of bankruptcy or strikes, but not all, so be careful when buying. The cost will probably be about 10% of the trip cost.