Just back from Italy/Ireland Trip

Ugh...what a time you had! You can usually tell on the Delta website if the plane is actually flown by another airline but I am also guessing this could change over the course of 10 months.

I had a similar thing happen with losing seats I booked well in advance, but I had booked the Delta flight on the KLM website (too complicated to explain why, lol) and didn't know to check it frequently to see if there were any changes in aircraft configuration.

I am glad you still had a wonderful time and look forward to the rest of your updates!

What you might try in the future is using 800 number to directly contact the actual carrier and confirm seat assignment that way. I have done this before when not allowed to even chose a seat when booking on an out of the country carrier.

Margaret,

I flew Alitalia from Rome to Los Angeles and didn't have any of the problems that you encountered. I had more legroom than on the KLM flight from LA to Amsterdam. Alitalia had much better food as well. I had downloaded the App from Alitalia to check in and the only problem I had was the flight number was not being recognized. I finally added a zero in front of the flight number and it took it. Boarding the flight was kind of chaotic as they made no attempt to board by rows. I have been on flights like yours and it is no fun. The worst seats are the last row of the plane. It seems everyone waiting to use the restroom has to have their hand on your seat back and they are always talking. Also on a lot of airlines, the flight attendant's rest area is in the back of the plane and even on a dead eye, they talk all night despite being asked if they could lower their voices.

Flew Alitalia for our first trip abroad six years ago, Chicago nonstop to Rome. Bare bones, not comfortable. Most horrifically, I had been planning on downing a couple vodka/tonics and going to sleep, but all they had was red or white wine, and not very good stuff at that. Yuck.

Worse yet was our flight on United Chicago to Paris last year. No room, no TV in the seats, no nothing. And they didn't care. Contrast that with the return flight on Lufthansa from Munich, which had at least 6 inches more room in front, which makes all the difference. Good food, and plenty of stuff to watch for the 10-hour flight.

Needless to say, we are flying Lufthansa to Europe and back next February. We did have to be careful though. On the Lufthansa website, some flights were 'Lufthansa, operated by United Airlines'. Uh, no thank you.

We booked our flight to Europe in Sept.using frequent flyer miles through Delta, so we were bounced around on the flight over. The Delta flight to Amsterdam was great, except for the person in front of me who had his seat back for the entire trip, even when he was leaning forward on his tray table. The next flight was from Amsterdam to Rome with KLM. The flight was alright, but I was surprised when I discovered that one of the 2 bathrooms in the back was taped shut! The last flight was from Rome to Naples with Alitalia. They did not allow you to select seats until you checked in for the flight. I was not impressed with them. Looking at their website before the trip, it stated that they follow the guidelines of the booking airline(Delta). I do not have an overly big carry on, but they tagged it and said that I had to check it at the plane. I thought that maybe they had small bins on the plane. They did not weigh it or measure it. We had to take a bus to the plane, and walk up stairs. Once I got in the plane, I was surprised to see the spacious bins and many were completely empty! I wasn't too happy as I saw others bringing their larger carry ons onboard. I use a carry on as I didn't want to check my luggage, and have a lot to lug around. Also, I had been told that I could pick my bag up by the plane when I deplaned. Wrong! The bag was on the tarmac, but I wasn't allowed to take it. I had to go and wait for it to arrive with the rest of the checked luggage. But, I did have a great vacation, so all is well!

My Issue with Delta is that we found out it was ILITALIA when we were checking in the night before and it wouldn't let us check in . So I called Delta who assured me my seats were fine. I called AILTALIA and was told to keep trying which we did and then after several calls was told not to worry all was secure.. When we got to the airport our seat was given away. We were told we should have checked in online...told them we tried to several times...shrug of the shoulders.. take it or leave it.. I'm afraid I'm not letting this one go. Either airline will have to answer to this. And the seat in front broken....I could go on and on...just warning the next unsuspecting customer.
Pat

I knew that the last leg would be Alitalia when I purchased the tickets about 9 months in advance. But, you are correct about checking in online with Alitalia, it wasn't possible. Even when we checked in for our flight from Minneapolis, Delta said that we would have to wait until Rome to check in with Alitalia. Fortunately, the flight from Rome to Naples is a short one. I would have been very upset if I had lost the seats for the flight over, as I, too, select them way in advance so that we don't have to sit in the middle row. Good Luck.

OP: interested in hearing about the rest of the trip. The ride over sounds frustrating but something I could look past and not let it spoil my trip given that you are embarking on an amazing vacation and very fortunate to be doing so.

That said I would definitely email Delta and also post on their social media which sometimes gets a fast response, maybe they will give you a voucher or some miles for your inconvenience. Since you did not pay money to Alitalia I would probably not bother complaining to them.

We flew home on our recent Italy/Europe trip on Aer Lingus which worked out well for us (only mentioning it since you mentioned Ireland was part of the trip).