alitalia.com versus alitalia.it

Jane, call the reservation number and quote the promotion to them over the phone and see if they will give it to you. The worst that will happen is that they won't honor it.

If I were you, I wouldn't check any bags with this airline. If they lose your bags, they have the WORST customer service I've ever encountered. If they do (and that's a big IF) find your bags, they make you go to the airport to pick them up! My sister-in-law and her husband were on a direct flight from Neward to Rome, and both their checked bags were lost. After an enormous amount of grief and five days, they had to get a taxi to the airport to search two lost baggage locations at FCO to find one of the bags; 10 days later, while on the Amalfi Coast, they had to go to Naples airport to retrieve the second bag. It was a nightmare and wrecked havoc on their much awaited trip. My brother-in-law has terminal lung cancer and this was to be a trip of a lifetime for them. Thanks to Alitalia, it was a very stressful trip. They are horrible!!!!

How long ago was this trip from Newark to Rome? I'm curious to know if this was before or after that were acquired by private investors or were still government run.

We flew the new Alitalia this past May and I can't sing their praises highly enough. They were outstanding! I bet the bad experience described above was indeed when they were under the previous management.

@ Michael, when you flew ALitalia, did you notice if people were allowed to carry on both their carry on bag (hand luggage) plus a computer bag? Their website says that a computer bag is considered your "hand luggage" so I am a little confused.

I didn't notice that. We had our netbook inside one of our two "personal item" bags (i.e. backpacks). But we also had a tennis racket with us and two rolling carry on bags. We got all five pieces on the plane, even though the two carry on bags were substantially over the stated limit of 10 kg (at 12 kg each). (The website says the limit is 8 kg but the woman at the JFK counter told us 10 kg - go figure.) FWIW, I was concerned in advance that there might be a problem so I was trying to be as charming as possible (in Italian) with the Italian woman at the check in counter. Maybe that helped. :-)

I see we have gotten off topic. Marianne, I did call alitalia.com and the rep said he knew of no "promo's". I have done a little more research and think I am just going to ask for the promo fare on alitalia.it and see what happens. The problem is I can't call alitalia.it without incurring a huge phone charge. I went to alitalia's different county sites and noticed that pretty much for every country's website on this side of the Atlantic they don't offer the promo fare. Except Venezuela. Go figure.

Jane, through this forum I found a website called flyertalk.com. It is made up of airline employees and frequent, frequent travelers from all over the world. These people really know the ins and outs of the airlines and airline programs. Might I suggest you peruse the "Forums", under "Airline Programs" and Ailitalia and see if anyone there can give you some solid advice, and maybe even a way to contact them and avoid the phone charge.

The bad experience with the luggage was about two months ago. My sister-in-law flew from Newark to Rome on July 8th, 2011.

I will check out flyertalk, thanks. I plan on doing carry on only so I am not worried about losing my luggage.

If you can buy a ticket on alitalia.it, it will not matter should you have any problem! It's the same airline after all. Alitalia improved a lot after bankruptcy. The problem IMO is their old fleet. As old as the airplane relics US Airways use on flights from East Coast to Europe.