To the Pig Fuckers at Alitalia

The BBQ Pit
1

Yes, I know that it was your mistake in the first place, and the airfare was insanely low. I knew it was too good to be true going in. I was banking on the fact that once you publish a fare and issue a ticket you have to honour it. *

This is just to let you know that I’ve given up, and will be refunding my damn ticket. It’s not worth it to argue with you, to try to get my itinerary reinstated, get hung up on by your phone agents, and have the only email you respond to be the one where I call you a sad excuse for an airline, which has become very apparently true, by the way.

You win. I will take my $210.29 back, and as a traveler, never book your pathetic airline again. As a professional, I can divorce my clients’ needs/wants from personal opinion, and if they so wish will use you, but I really hope you finish this year in the red, and end up tanking next year. Insolvency would be too good for you. Fuck you, and your shady doings.

*Background info:

Two weeks ago, someone at Alitalia (probably now unemployed), loaded a fare in all the travel reservation systems (available through a travel agent or online), for a trip from Toronto to Larnaca, Cyprus in business class, for the insane price of CAD39.00, which should have been CAD3900.00

In classic cases like this, the airline has admited they fucked up, and allowed people to travel. See examples of British Airways 20.00 plus taxes fares from the US to London, and Air Canada/Mexicanna flights from Toronto or Montreal to Cancun for 200.00 taxes in.

Many people bought tickets, because the fare was available for 12 hours. Alitalia finally cut off sales, and cancelled all reservations. After a large outcry from those who bought tickets, they then said they would honour the fare, but back dated a rule change in the GDS (reservation systems). Said tickets were fully refundable, changeable, and allowed stopovers. I had 3 days in Cyprus and 2 in Milan. I was looking forward to it. Now, my itinerary shows 4 days in Cyprus, and 22 hours in Milan. The new rules now say no stopovers, no refunds, no changes. Alitalia is changing people’s reservations in an effort to encourage people to cancel. I for one have had enough and am canceling.
Once again, fuck you all, and have fun on the bread lines in a few years!

2

What’s wrong with 4 days in Cyprus instead of 3? Yes, you miss out on Milan, but take it anyway silly!

3

I don’t usually jump in on business rants but Alitalia is not only the worst airline in the world, it is likely the worst large business as well. I say that with all sincerity.

It is the Italian…state…airline. That is all you need to know if you think about it.

They held my wife daughter and I practically hostage for 8 hours once trying to get our flight out of Paris straightened out. They had us stand in line in these weird places that we could not leave and their employees would simply disappear for an hour or so at a time. My wife is half-Italian and speaks Italian so there weren’t any cultural barriers. Meanwhile, Italian people are practically trampling my daughter because they don’t respect lines like Americans do. This whole time, we could get neither food nor water and it was getting seriously desperate. As suddenly as it started, it ended when they shoved us on a plane back home with little warning. They refused to give us more than a sip of water on the plane even when I begged so I had to give mine to my daughter.

I went into the lavatory as soon as we got to altitude and just drank and drank from the lavatory seat. I broke out in a massive rash the next day all over my back and shoulders and it took 3 months to heal.

That is one of many stories. I have flown with them 4 times and each exposure was more horrific than the last. The only reason I flew with them before was that people like my in-laws bought the tickers but I put in a stern warning that I refused to ever board an Alitalia plane again and they understood why I meant it. I am dead serious about that and I am getting mad just sitting here thinking about them.

BTW, if you have not been to Milan, it is pretty overrated. It isn’t that much of a tourist town despite the glamor reputaion. It is rather industrial and not especially pretty. It also has more McDonalds than I have ever seen in one place in my life (like one literally every 3 blocks or so). Venice, Verona, and Florence are great though and not super far.

4

22 hours in Milan is plenty. I’ve been there.

5

I second that. Milan is a city where popular perception does not match up well to reality. It isn’t a horrible place, but there really isn’t that much for tourists to do and it doesn’t excel at much besides the fashion industry and that isn’t really something you can just go and see. There are better alternatives close by.

6

Nothing inherantly wrong with that, but Cyprus (namely Limassol where I would have been staying), is damn expensive. Milan fit into my budget better as the hotel would have been only USD59.00 per night. Cyprus would have been CAD 115.00 per night. Easy math for a wage slave :slight_smile:

I really just wanted to vent, it would have been a great trip, but I’ll take my money back.

I’m now planning Iceland for November, thanks to more screwy airline fares. It costs about CAD500.00 less to go from Ottawa to London, with a stop in Reykjavik on the way there, spend a Saturday in London, and fly back than it does to just go to Reykjavik. Who knew - 2 great cities, for a lower price.

7

dude you saved $3700 bucks on the airfare. You can afford more that $59/ night for a hotel. :smiley:

8

:eek: :eek: :eek:

Please tell me that is a typo for sink. Or I may have to curl into a ball on the floor and whimper.

9

I didn’t even catch that typo, but judging from the results, it was probably all the same anyway. I slurped it up from the facet because I was seriously thirsty and getting dehydrated. Alitalia employees don’t really care whether you live or die as far as I can tell. I am usually an apologetists for businesses but that is one sorry outfit. Soemone needs to tell them that it isn’t 1975 anymore either and they interiors of their planes could use a little refreshing.

10

Well, I could, but I’m a cheap bastard in some respects, and if I was paying full price for the hotels, it would be a whole hell of a lot more :slight_smile:

Thank you Starwood Hotels for buying LeMeridien :smiley:

For those that didn’t look kindly on Milan, I would have liked to see The Last Supper, and call me a hick, but I also would have gotten great pleasure from riding the Milanese subway system for hours - hell, when I go to Toronto, I do that. I like to sit up front, and watch the driver and the signal lights.

Really, I have no regrets about not going, I just wanted to voice my displeasure with the state-owned airline of Italy, thanks for that shagnasty, it’s not like the Italian government doesn’t have deep pockets :slight_smile:

11

(Ex-travel dude here.) Icelandair offered us $99 round trips from MSP to Rejkjavik. Who could refuse that? Iceland was actually pretty cool. We made it out to the Westmann Islands (the town of Heymey(sp? I forget), where ‘Free Willie’ the orca was relocated.)

If you haven’t been there, two tips:

Don’t drink that foul elixir they call the national drink. It’s fermented walrus snot.

Bring a good jacket. The wind never quits blowing. Never. It just ranges from stiff breeze to gale force.

12

Good info, thanks. Speaking of fare mistakes, how abour FI’s screwup three weeks ago? That was MSP REK for USD45.00 plus tax. I swear, I could work full time searching SABRE for fare mistakes, and travel all over the world cheap cheap cheap. Unfortunately, I actually have to work at work, and these things are hit and miss :slight_smile:

13

Agree with you on both counts. Also, they make the WORSE coffee I have ever tried in my life.

14

I used to be an instructor on SABRE, APOLLO and Worldspan. I’ve also worked on System 1. It was interesting how often weird fares would appear.

I remember one promotion when Republic Airlines (remember them?) was offering a free roundtrip to any of their destinations after the purchase of five round trip, full-fare tickets. Well, there were two small towns–one in Alabama and one in Georgia–where the full fare one way was about $18. So, that meant for an investment of $180, someone could get a round trip to Hawaii. Not bad.

Another weird fare was on Braniff between Dallas and Houston. The regular fare was, I think, $37, but if you paid $40, you got a certificate redeemable at the duty free shop for a quart of Jack Daniels.

But…this was a rant about Alitalia. From what I’ve heard, they’re not much better than Air India. At least on Alitalia you sort of know your destination before the plane lifts off and it’s not a matter of popular vote by the passengers.

15

Oh, don’t get me started on APOLLO. That’s another rant in itself. I work with SABRE only now, but for the past four years doing emergency travel at two different companies, each one had two or thee clients on APOLLO. I’m sure it’s great if one uses it routinely, but as an ocasionaly used system it can be very frustrating. Of course, it would be the reverse if I used APOLLO and had to use SABRE ocasionally.

I’m so glad I’m out of 24 Hour emergency travel. It was fun stressful, and allowed troubleshooting to the extreme (like getting Scandanavian Airlines in London to allow a passenger on a flight when he was mistakenly issued a paper ticket for VIA Rail in Canada), but now just dealing with clients who want to book normal trips is wonderful.

16

I’m Indian, and I resent that. Air India doesn’t lift off most of the time. :smiley:

Oh, and plus, they serve you baked cardboard and what looks suspiciously like Calvin’s Debilitating Death Drink in horrible little plastic cups. Flew them once; never again. Sri Lankan, Emirates or British Airways for me now. Air India even has the almighty cheek to charge more for a flight with a stopover from London to Bangalore than BA does for a nonstop flight. Dumbasses. I don’t know if AI has changed in the 12 years since I flew with them, but once was much more than enough.

[/minor hijack rant] I now return you to your regularly scheduled Alitalia pitti… We regret to inform you that due to unforseen circumstances beyond our control, this thread is being diverted to Jakarta. Your luggage will be sent on to San Francisco. We apologise for the inconvenience. In the meantime, please feel free to refresh yourself with the lemon-soaked paper napkins which we have neglected to load on this flight. :wink:

17

Well there is the Cathedral, and Leonardo’s Last Supper, but Italy being what it is, yes there are scads of more beautiful and interesting places nearby.

18

Why not trei a holiday in Sweden this yeer?

19

That wouldn’t’ve been too bad, except your destination was Quito.