Can a Airline change your flight during a Pandemic? Trip to Sicily

I am so sorry to hear about your parents - it sounds like it would have been amazing trip.

Did you book the second flight separately or is it the second leg of the journey you started with AA? In that case it would be AA that will refund you. If not, Alitalia will almost certainly refund your flight or offer some form of compensation, but I have heard from multiple friends and colleagues that it is taking a long time for Airlines to respond because of this unprecedented situation.

Best of luck and please keep us updated!

You will be bound by EU/Italian rules, but in general, if an airline changes your flight significantly, you are entitled to a refund. You'll need to read the terms and conditions carefully and they might not make "refund" your first choice or very obvious. Airlines, understandably, would rather give out a voucher.

The key question is whether this is one ticket from the US all the way to Sicily or did you book it as two separate transactions one with American and one with Alitalia and have two tickets for each person each way?

https://www.alitalia.com/en_en/fly-alitalia/news-and-activities/news/info-flights/changing-travel-plans.html

Presumably you have seen this but, in case have not, it lays out the some of the 'ground rules'.

PASSENGERS WHO HAVE HAD THEIR FLIGHT CANCELED

All passengers in possession of an Alitalia (055) ticket whose flight has been canceled can request the following by 31 August:

A change of booking to travel by 31 March 2021 or within the maximum ticket validity period
A voucher, valid for one year, to fly to any destination served by Alitalia
A refund of the price of the ticket or of the remaining value of the part of the trip which has not yet been completed

Our travel Agent booked us on separate flights not as one continuous flight. Thank you for all your input. It is much appreciated.

Wendy, in that case I would expect the Travel Agent to take some responsibility for resolving this situation. Alitalia would have no knowledge or interest of from where you are coming or when as they have no part of that transaction. As far as they're concerned you just want to get to Palermo from Rome, and they have rescheduled your flight, not cancelled it. This is a good example of why separate tickets are not always a good idea.

I hope it works out for you. In 2015 We had a trip to Sicily booked completely by Alitalia and using just them. We had to cancel due to my husband’s health. We paid for refundable tickets plus it was insured.
They have been the most difficult airline I have ever done business with. Then All communications went through their Milan office. I’d receive alerts on the flight and the only way I could find out what it was about was by calling Italy. Three times it was a time change of minutes only. Of course we wanted to be updated but to have to call Italy each time is ridiculous.

It took endless phone calls, being on hold forever, and finally my letter and email to the CEO of Alitalia as their office wasn’t helping me at all. We had to send proof document from the doctor here that my husband couldn’t fly. Four long months of corresponding with Milan to receive all of our complete refund. They returned it back by the segments paid. A paid refundable ticket shouldn’t have to go through such hoops.

I also think that your travel agent should take responsibility although I am pretty sure that Alitalia will cancel the flight and offer some sort of refund (cash or credit) as it is currently impossible to travel in Italy even for locals.

Of course an airline can change your reservation, especially during a worldwide pandemic.

Now it's up to your travel agent to get your second, unsecured, ticket resolved, whether this was a bricks and mortar agency or an online ticket reseller that often cobbles these kinds of unprotected flights together. You might be able to get some money, a voucher, but you may have to accept that the money is gone forever. It's doubtful that a daily flight within the country would be canceled.

A lot of us have lost a lot of money on trips we couldn't take. My six-week trip was interrupted; I'm still waiting for several thousand dollars that was promised from three different sources. If/when the money comes back, it will be nice, but with so much going on, like a lot of others, I'm going to move on.

You might be able to get some money, a voucher, but you may have to
accept that the money is gone forever. It's doubtful that a daily
flight within the country would be canceled.

Huh??? The flight WAS canceled. Wendy was automatically rebooked on a different flight, but Alitalia's own terms (thanks Joe32F) clearly allow her to get a voucher and even a refund.

Her second flight was changed to a different plane a few hours earlier. Indeed her first two Alitalia flights were cancelled, but they are still honoring the reservation.
This is my opinion: she can request to cancel the Alitalia reservation, but this is not an easy case for getting refunded--seats on planes exist for them, difficult carrier to reach, country in crisis, language, bankrupt carrier, she's canceling-not the carrier, so it could all be a washout. She's going to have to work hard calling repeatedly to get anywhere. I'm saying this from experience after calling about my refunds weekly. There is what's written and then there's the reality.
Her best bet is to get the travel agency working on this. But if it's really an on-line ticket seller like Expedia, that's just another layer of frustration that will take large effort. Not every company is as easy as some situations reported here

Her second flight was changed to a different plane a few hours
earlier. Indeed her first two Alitalia flights were cancelled, but
they are still honoring the reservation.

Please carefully reread her post. Her first two flights were on American, not Alitalia. Alitalia CANCELED her flight from Rome to Palermo. They did rebook her on another flight, but then that flight's schedule was changed. Per Alitalia's current terms, she is entitled to a full refund because her flight was cancelled. She does not have to accept the new flight or schedule. Generally, when an airline changes your flight more than a few hours (it can vary), they must allow you to cancel the booking without penalty. That is exactly what Alitalia did and is allowing her to do.

Your point about the difficulty of actually canceling and choosing a refund instead of a voucher is valid, but since she worked with a travel agent to book the flights, the agent should be the one to do that for her. But even if not, it is worth her time to get the refund since she might not travel again on Alitalia.

For any flight canceled during the period of Coronavirus the special law issued on March is quite clear: the flight has to be refunded. You have 30 days after the cancellation of the flight to ask the refund.
The problem is that the law says that the company can choose to refund the money or give you a 12 months valid voucher. Is a choice of the flight company, not a consumer choice.
So, write to Alitalia for the refund and be patient because they have been flooded by these kind of requests. Scarcely you will have your money back, but for sure you will receive your voucher for a future travel.

In any case remember that is still valid the self quarantine: until the 18th of May any traveler arrived in Italy have to stay in a closed room for the first 14 days. Later you can exit respecting the travel limitation valid for anybody.

Can someone tell me what they would do here?

Since a travel agent booked the flight, I would be hounding the travel agent to resolve this.

If you feel the travel agent isn't knowledgeable, giving you the run-around or is not fulfilling their duties, go to their host agency and tell them so.

If you need information so you can determine whether what the travel agent is telling you is correct or not, go to https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/travel/passenger-rights/air/index_en.htm to understand the EU carriage contract for EU airlines.

This website will explain about your rights when an EU airline changes your flight https://www.claimcompass.eu/blog/flight-schedule-change-compensation/