- Booked a flight from New York to Milan for the Winter Olympics, 7 months in advance.

-By chance, decided to lengthen the trip, so called Alitalia. Was informed that it would cost $200/ticket change-fee per ticket. Agreed to this change fee.

-Only when the agent reconfirmed the changes and read them back to me (at my insistence) did I discover that Alitalia had cancelled the Friday night outbound flight and had kindly confirmed me on the Saturday night flight. This was utterly unacceptable since I had booked expensive Olympic tickets for Saturday night.

-The customer service agent was completely unhelpful, telling me that this happens all the time.

-Asked for a full refund of the tickets. The customer service agent told me that there would be a $20/ticket handling fee to cancel, despite their mistake.

-Despite continued requests to speak to a supervisor, not once did a supervisor come to the phone.

-To register a complaint, US customers are directed to a US head-office phone number.

Flew from Heathrow at 0600 on the 13/03/05 going to Milan and flew back on the 20/03/05 on flight AZ244. I had read reviews of Alitalia before I flew out and I was quite worried by what I had read. However both flights were relaxing and the staff were friendly and helpful. The seating was comfortable and I had plenty of legroom(I am six feet tall)and the cabins were pristine clean. OK. The food was not exceptional but what can you expect for 2-3 hour economy flights. In fact, it was no worse than other airlines that I have flown with. My partner is registered disabled and we had no problems getting assistance for her. From check in to arrival both ways was efficient and friendly.

Alitalia:
We arrived at Heathrow airport and checked in at Alitalia desk at 6.00pm on Sunday 13th February 2005. We ensured we turned up early in order to avoid queues and secure our favoured seats on the flight. We had travelled from Cardiff by car and then by Heathrow Express from London Paddington (paid extra money to be there early)

- We boarded the aeroplane at approximately 8.25pm though the flight was scheduled to leave at 8.05pm. Also from this I assume Alitalia already had knowledge of the technical problem, hence the initial delay.

- After about 10 minutes we were told that there was a technical problem with the right side engine of the plane. We were told that the engineers would try to fix the problem.

- During our time on the aeroplane we watched as the engine was opened in front of us. This thoughtless act itself caused much distress for many of the passengers and made us very uncomfortable. Furthermore, during this pointlessly lengthy wait on the aeroplane we received no guidance or update on the situation from staff apart from one announcement informing us that we might have to disembark the plane but it was a further hour and a half before we were eventually asked to leave the plane. The little that was said to passengers after this announcement was conveyed in Italian language only.

- Eventually we were asked to disembark and told to follow an Alitalia representative back to the terminal. We were very close to the front of the disembarking queue but on numerous occasions on this extremely long walk back to the terminal the Alitalia representative did not wait for everyone and caused many people to get lost.

- When we finally arrived back at the main terminal another representative told us to walk to the other end of the terminal but when we finally arrived here we were sent back the other way to Gate 1.

- On arriving back at Gate 1, which we had passed 10 minutes earlier, we were greeted by absolute chaos and no order was encouraged by the Alitalia representatives. Further announcements were made only in Italian language which we finally found out from a friendly bilingual passenger, meant that were we going to be given meal vouchers. The time was now close to midnight.

- After extensive queuing for these meal vouchers we managed to get to the front of the queue when certain other Italian passengers clearly jumped ahead of me to complain about other issues. The representatives dealt with the situation very unprofessionally and when, after an additional pointless half an hour of waiting we received our meal vouchers, we went to get food from the restaurant section we were told we could not use them because we had to collect our baggage and be taken to hotels. By this time we were extremely distressed by the treatment we were receiving, the fact that we had not been allowed to get food or drink due to poor organisation, and due to the fact that we had been on our feet with hand luggage, standing in queues for nearly two hours.

- When we managed to get to the baggage claim area with no help or direction from Alitalia representatives, again we received no indication of where to go next.

- When we eventually found our way to the next queue, we waited for another two hours whilst hotel accommodation was supposedly being arranged. However, it was evident, on numerous occasions that representatives were happier to deal with helping the one or two less thoughtful and complaining customers than the vast majority of those polite enough to wait in an orderly fashion. We would like to also clarify in particular that very little concern was shown for families with small children. During this wait, numerous announcements were made but again only in Italian language. We managed to overhear that we would have a flight at 2pm the next day which was eventually confirmed by a representative.

- At around 1.45am we finally boarded a coach for a hotel. However, we were made to wait a further half an hour on this coach whilst a representative unashamedly told us that we were waiting because they were helping some other passengers to get another flight!

- When we arrived at the hotel, once again no direction was given by any representative and we were greeted only with further chaotic queues.

- We managed to get to our bedroom by 2.45am. We were told to be back at the terminal by 12 noon the next day, 14th February 2005.

- We arrived at check in 12 noon on Valentines Day, where we were once again faced with absolute disorganisation from Alitalia. After overhearing through translation (by another passenger because the announcement again was in Italian) that our flight would leave at 4pm at the earliest we managed to check in but this time could not secure our favoured seats which we had travelled early for the previous day. However, we decided not to complain simply because we were exhausted. We were told to keep an eye on the departure screens for updated information.

- We entered the departure lounge and managed to use some new meal vouchers that we had been given at check in, but were still not able to use the vouchers we were given the night before as the restaurants would not accept them. We constantly kept an eye on the departure information screens as advised by Alitalia staff. However, there was never any mention of our flight.

- At around 2pm an Alitalia representative at Gate 1 informed us that it was unlikely the flight would leave before 7pm. This message had not been announced and departure time was still not listed on the screens. It was just by chance that one of us was at the gate at that time that we managed to get this information.

- At approximately 3.00 we decided that we would attempt to book ourselves on a different flight, mainly due to rumours that our flight would not be leaving and our discomfort with the knowledge that we were to be boarding the same aeroplane which had technical problems. We walked back around the terminal to the Alitalia ticket offices, and after another wait of around half an hour whilst 4 representatives dealt with two customers, we finally got served. On explanation of our circumstances the representative made a phone call and confirmed to us that we needed to go back to the departure lounge as our flight was leaving at around 4pm. Again we were told to keep looking at the info screen. We decided, based on his recommendation, that we get this flight.

- Whilst waiting in the departure lounge for further information, we went to purchase some food with the remaining meal vouchers whilst taking the opportunity to go to the toilet. Suddenly, there was an announcement stating that we were required to go to the departure Gate. We double checked the flight info given to ensure this referred to our flight. We looked for information on the screens but there still was nothing. However just as we were purchasing our food less than 1 minute later there was another announcement saying that the flight (same flight reference was quoted) was boarding and that the gate was closing. We proceeded to run the length of the terminal to get to the gate before our flight departed.

- When we arrived at the gate, utterly out of breath and sweating from running the distance of a 25 minute walk in 5 minutes, we were then told by representatives at the gate, with no apology, that the announcement was wrong and the flight was not going anywhere for quite some time.

- However we waited at the gate for a further 30 minutes and finally we were allowed to board the aeroplane.

- We waited on the plane for a further 1 hour and 15 minutes before departing. We were also told that there would be no snacks or food due to the engine problems!

- We arrived in Rome at our hotel by 10pm on 14th February 2005. We were told we could not get a refund for the night we had missed.



Incidentally, this was a surprise holiday arranged to celebrate our anniversary and Valentines Day which your company not only completely ruined for us but also managed to cause extreme stress for the rest of our holiday which was rushed due to our 24 hour delay.

Nearly a month on, several letters and tens of emails later, no reply. Not even a letter of confirmation of these events to provide to the insurance company. I strongly advise that you do not use Alitalia

Alitalia - On our journey from London to Malta via Rome all three of our bags were lost. We eventually got them 4 days later after many telephone calls to the airport (they were supposed to contact us but did not)! We had to go to the airport for the bags as they would not deliver them to our apartment. When the cases arrived one was totally destroyed and items had been stolen out of another.

On our return Alitalia lost another case of ours!!! They are obviously very used to damaging baggage as they had some new cases behind the counter to compensate passengers!!