traveling to Italy Alitalia/KLM PSA

[Cheesecake]

Hey everyone,

Just a quicky PSA for everyone who might consider traveling to Italy in the (nearish) future and still has to buy their tickets.

Apparently Alitatia's website/systems are all screwed up, especially (but not limited to) the connection with other airlines. It will show the wrong prices and charge you with insane amount and won't tell you until after you've paid.

We just paid 873 euros for something we thought we paid 249 for. Not cool! :@

The problem has existed for about a week and a half so far, and won't be fixed for approx 3 to 4 weeks, is what the customer service dude told us. None of the airline websites inform you about this. (And it is probably a problem at ALL websites that sell ANY tickets that have ANY leg of the flight operated by Alitalia.)

We fortunately did notice it when the payment window closed, but it wasn't obvious at all. Since I was able to call them immediately, they did say they're going to pay us back (but that'll take a month) but that's only because we called them so quickly.

I'm sure there aren't tons of us buying tix with stretches being operated by Alitalia, but I'd HATE for other people to get screwed by this. :-(

Fortunately we can afford to be out of that money for a month (yes, we had to pay for the correct tickets immediately again to lock in the rates) but it still sucks balls!

[frlcb]

Alitalia is a horrible airline - they will not allow a child under two to have their own seat. Even if you want to pay for it. Even if you have paid for it and show up as someone I know did and when they saw the child was under 2 they told the parents too bad and he became a lap child. I will never fly them for that alone.

[Cheesecake]

We've had great experiences with them so far, same with KLM, but their websites are all screwed up at the moment and they know it.

KLM won't even post on their website that this issue is going on, which is stupid. How many people will not notice the weird payment and end up paying 4 times the actual price. KLM is a big asshole in this equation too!

[clogged]

WTH!?!? Isn't that discrimination? The "no under-twos allowed to have a seat"?

Foodie.... you paid twice, right? First bad, second good? Can you charge back the first transaction on your cc?

[Deleted]

I wouldn't fly Alitalia if they gave free tickets... A month for a refund, unbelievable. And what's up with Italian websites? They look and work like a nightmare from the 70s or something.

But YAY for La Scala!! Who's conducting?

[Cheesecake]

clogged: Yes, I paid twice. I can't charge it back to my CC, I paid with the Maestro card. They have already approved paying me back, but that takes about a month (or so they told me).

jewels, the crazy slow refund is ALLLL KLM though, Alitalia's website just doesn't communicate well with others and KLM refuses to actually inform customers of this problem.

RE who's conducting at La Scala, I know nothing. I jsut went to the website, found 2 performances in the time we're there, thought Rene Pape sounded less interesting than Onegin, so I booked Onegin. On September 17th I'll be sitting in the nosebleeds enjoying myself immensely, no matter who's doing what!

[Cheesecake]

Okay, just went back to the site, Jewels, Mikhail Tatarnikov is conducting, it's the Ballet, btw.

This is the info from the website, that probably tells you waaaay more than it tells me.

Coreografia: John Cranko
Ripresa da: Agneta Valcu e Victor Valcu
Supervisione coreografica di: Reid Anderson
Proprietà dei diritti: Dieter Graefe
Musica: Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij
Elaborazione musicale di: Kurt-Heinz Stolze
Direttore: Mikhail Tatarnikov
Scene: Pierluigi Samaritani
Costumi: Pierluigi Samaritani e Roberta Guidi di Bagno
Luci: Steen Bjarke

Orchestra dell'Accademia del Teatro alla Scala

[allibally]

Jul 14, 2012 16:51:38 GMT -5 @jewels6711 said:

I wouldn't fly Alitalia if they gave free tickets... A month for a refund, unbelievable. And what's up with Italian websites? They look and work like a nightmare from the 70s or something.

An expat blogger in Switzerland did a post in outdated/un-user friendly Swiss websites. I'm now imaging all Italian websites to be as bad. Haha

[Deleted]

Foodie you're going to see Roberto Bolle.... you'll love him!! I don't t know Onegin the ballet too well, so I'm looking forward to your review

[tricolore]

Grrrrrr! That, as does Alitalia, sucks!
Am sure you'll have a great time in sept though. H and I just went to Milan (for the first time) and saw Don Pasquele at la scala on Thursday. We also had nose bleed seats, but it really was a great night! The acoustics were great, so even with so-so seats, you could still enjoy the show!