Last July (13 Jul 2009) me and my wife traveled to Nice from Athens Greece through Rome, by Alitalia. It was probably one of the worst trips I ever had with any airline company.
When we arrived at Nice, noon of the 13th July (hot day), we found out that they had lost our luggage, together with the luggage of most of the passengers from Athen by way of Rome.
The airport officials told us that this was a common thing with Alitalia. We filled out the necessary papers and left the airport with just out handbags, hoping that they would find our luggage and bring it to us.
We spent the whole day with nothing but the closes we had on. We were in front of the Cote d%26#39; Azzure and could not go swimming because Alitalia had lost our luggage with our bathing suits and beach towels and everything!
Finally by almost 10 pm that night, they notified us from the hotel that our luggage had arrived. We rushed back to the hotel and we had our second bad surprise! My wife%26#39;s red leather €500 Mandarina Duck suitcase was ruined! The Alitalia people (the handlers I guess) had ruined the suitcase. Not only it was scratched in places and the leather removed from the lining but the leather from one of the pouches was ripped! Probably some Alitalia handler picked the suitcase up from the pouch instead of the handle so he ripped off the leather.
So, in conclusion, Stay Away from Alitalia.
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Last year I took a flight from Nice to Rome with Alitalia, my luggage was also lost (it was a one hour direct flight !!!). Despite the fact that they promised to call me when the luggage was found, I had to call them to get news. I arrived at midday and my luggage was found before 20h00 (the time I called them) but no chance to get it before the next day as there were nobody available to bring it to Rome City center !! Rome should be a very small city far from the Airport to have no carrier available in the evening ;-) So on the next day, I had to go to an important conference with a jeans and a Polo. All the content of my luggage was upside down and all zips opened so I conclude that it has been visited by somebody between the time I have left it to Alitalia at Nice Airport and the time it was delivered to my Hotel in Roma.
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These are true horror stories.But Alitalia isn%26#39;t the only airline that loses luggage and usually it is not the airline%26#39;s fault.As for the ruination of a £500 leather case.Whether the case was £500/£5,0000/£50 they are just baggage to the handlers who usually handle all the airlines%26#39; hold baggage and they don%26#39;t offer a kid-gloves handling option.Maybe if I was travelling on The Orient Express I might be tempted to pack a £500 red leather suitcase. But on a scheduled flight it is nothing but a thief magnet.
I think Alitalia are something of an embarassment to the Italian government and they would like to get rid but most countries have a national carrier and the flag matters!
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To cheer you up a bit I will share the %26quot;true meaning%26quot; of a few airline acronyms as it is told amongst airline personnel.
ALITALI: Always Late In Take-off And Late In Arrival (have to invent one about Always Loosing...luggage)
SABENA: Such A Bad Experience Never Again
TAP: Take Another Plane
:-)
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Do you have one for USAIR, especially the personnel in Philadelphia? I could probably come up with one, but I read the TA caution.
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