shellio

Although I found it on Orbitz, it wouldn't let me lay over in Italy; trying to do that kicked it up to several thousand dollars. Calling Orbitz didn't help as they couldn't do it either.

Pnone calls to Alitalia were worse than useless...after an hour or more of frustration I gave up. Too bad though, it would have been a great excuse to go back again this fall. And I could have used AA FF miles to get to Toronto!

Congrats to those of you who pulled it off!

Seamus

Hate to be a party pooper, but did someone say that several legs of their itinerary were on Delta? The same Delta that is looking at going belly up later this month?

AAFrequentFlyer

I don't think they can do anything about it. Orbitz e-mailed a shipper tracking number for the paper ticket, so it has been printed.....

I suppose Alitalia can refuse to honor the tickets, but from my experience with the Expedia/Hilton mistake and couple of others, once you are confirmed, you're in. I'm going to Japan (twice in the next few months)because of it. Many others were cancelled because they never bothered to confirm, but I did! It works the same for paper tickets. They really have no choice.

Hilton Tokyo Executive Queen Suite for $3 all in, a night and Osaka Hilton Executive King Suite for $3.87 all in per night.

It's a good thing AA had a fare sale to Japan. TPA-NRT and TPA-KIX @$868 per flight all in, upgraded to business with e-vips!

~32K EQMs and ~67K total miles.

I love this game!!!

laartista

AA- I bought 2 of those tix this a.m. and got an e,ail with a conf.# and ticket # and seat assignment. does that mean it is good to go?

AAFrequentFlyer

I can't guarantee it, but I would say it's about 99%.

Wait about a week or so and see what shakes out......before you do anything else.

Congrats!

laartista

thanks they are mailing them 2 day i'll have them on fri.

AAFrequentFlyer

<b>Seamus</b>,

no, it wasn't automatically Delta. I chose AA from Toronto to New York, Delta was the other choice, as well as Continental, and couple of others.

DRJ

I still get the $33 fare on Orbitz, but I can't relish the thought of two weeks on Cyprus and can't get the fare on multicity. GRR.

GreenDragon

Congrats all who got this great deal! Makes me feel warm all over

I'm glad I got my MIA/LON deal for this June -- but wish it was Biz!

Kath

Several on flyer talk are reporting their reservations were cancelled.

grandmere

I sure hope it works out for you folks; I imagine a lot of us are getting vicarious thrills out of this!

rex

Easy come, easy go... my ticketing was canceled by Alitalia at the fare offered. They kept the space reserved for me at the new fare of over $4000.

Off to chase another rainbow. The reservationist told me that approximately 500 such fares were canceled yesterday.

tcreath

Rex, what a bummer! I ended up cancelling my own reservation yesterday. In all my excitement over finding the great fare I failed to realize how inconvient the times were, especially on a short 3 night trip. I wouldn't have gotten to Cyrpus until 6:00 p.m. so I would have only had 2 full days there, and then it had an overnight in New York before coming home. I couldn't find anything better without staying longer so I went ahead and cancelled. I was bummed about it all night, but I guess it was for the best as they got cancelled anyways.

Tracy

grantop

I have heard of other airlines making &quot;mistakes&quot; such as this great fare before, but usually aren't they honored? Is it rare that the airlines cancels the bookings? I realize that it was an error but I thought that they were usually treated as a valid fare. Comments?

BTilke

Yes, I wonder about that too. Were these seats already paid for? I would get MC/Visa or whomever to chase after them. Or is this ability to cancel a discount fare at will simply part of disdain that passes for customer service in the airline industry these days.

rex

I can't mount much outrage at this. It feels to me like we all knew we were &quot;stealing&quot;. The &quot;heist&quot;, it turns out was in the range of 2 million USD, spread over 200 or 300 days (roughly 500 seats sold at a revenue loss of about $4000 each).

The magnitude of this &quot;casualty&quot; for Alitalia may be governed (internally, not necessarily in a court of law) by contract rules with an(y) insurance carrier they have who covers &quot;errors and omissions&quot; (there may be an outside vendor involved as well, who maintains their database).

I'm not saying that we have no rights as &quot;jilted&quot; passengers, and it's not good for PR with the &quot;500 of us&quot;, who probably had little or no opinion, and even less loyalty (past, present or future prospective) anyhow.

Still, I would greatly appreciate a token &quot;apology&quot;. They can cancel on me? How about a one-time &quot;get out of jail card free&quot; from them, entitling me to a no penalty change or cancellation on Alitalia, if I should choose to book a flight with their company again?

pmgoosed

For the record, from a legal standpoint (and yes, there are more answers and details that could change the situation), the airline can revoke any &quot;paid&quot; for ticket because the ticket is not deemed a contract per se, rather a license, which can be revoked at will.

You see this very often with &quot;season ticket&quot; holders in sports.

rex

Note to BT - - credit card companies are powerless beyond getting money back. All money will be refunded (most were never charged it seems).

Gardyloo

There will be various threats of suit etc. on this one. The revoked ticket-holders (many like me with confirmed ticket numbers, some who actually have tickets in hand) are sufficient in number to constitute a class, and the trail of complicity stretches to Orbitz/Cheap Tickets, Alitalia phone agents, US and Canadian travel agents, and a few agents inside the EU. EU law governing these things is arguably stronger than US law.

I think the best thing to do for the had-ees (as we say) is to document everything you did, got, or read, and to sit tight while the authorities and media get involved. (As I write this our reservations and ticket nos. are still intact at Orbitz but I'm not holding my breath.)

A similar thing happened not too long ago with SAS, and after the media got ahold of it SAS backed down and re-issued the tickets. There is lag time in these matters and there's no point in trying to obtain instant satisfaction, any more than Alitalia is going to be able to stonewall the matter. Hard to believe the paparazzi would let them get away with it anyway.

Patience, friends...

AAFrequentFlyer

Well said <b>Gardyloo</b>.

I did advize somebody yesterday not to make any plans at least for a week to see how this all shakes out. It may actually be little longer now that Alitalia is not accepting the reses, but it's not over. I'm not going to fight this on a personal level but with enough pressure and possible press and governmental involvement, who knows?

If it doesn't work, oh well. Nothing gained, nothing lost, but it's not over until the &quot;fat lady sings&quot;

I still have 2 &quot;mistakes&quot; that are good to go. The Expedia/Hiltons in Japan. In May I'm spending 4 nights at the Tokyo Hilton Queen Executive room for $12 ALL IN, and in June, on my birthday I have 4 nights at the Osaka Hilton Executive King suite for a total of $13.56. Sometimes it does work! It could still work here as well!