Flights Cancellation

When is your flight?

Did you book online from Alitalia or through another service? If through Alitalia, the transaction is automatic and so should the charge be to your credit card.

As long as you have a record of your transaction, and the airline says you have a ticket, you should be fine.

Alitalia is going through a lot of changes right now. They just missed going bankrupt and are now dealing with new owners. Unless the flight is within a couple of weeks, give it another week or two.

Airlines can cancel flights anywhere from 6 months to 6 mintues before the flight is scheduled. Remember, if they cancel your flight, that means they also have to cancel the flight to the U.S. that's bringing your plane. At 50% plus, it should go.

Again, when is your flight?

My flight to Italy leaves on May 21, returning to the US on May 31. The tickets were booked directly on the Alitalia website (not through a 3rd party). I printed out every email and confirmation I received from them so that I have some proof of purchase. I'll wait till the end of April before I start calling Alitalia again.

Sounds like a good plan. I'm really surprised you haven't been charged. But, you have all the paperwork confirming, so, that's a plus.

Sharon,

I really think you are giving Alitalia WAY too much credit. They don't plan that far ahead to cancel a flight that far in advance!

That said I would either log into Alitalia and make SURE I could find my confirmation or call them. Something could have gone wrong and better now then later.
And as for Alitalia notifying you of cancellations.... I suspect after you arrive at the airport is thier standard!

Hi, Sharon.

See if you can get an actual ticket number. a 'record locator' or 'PNR', 5-6 number confirmation, can be created without a ticket pretty easily, but if you can get an actual ticket number, it's a pretty good indication you actually have a ticket for the flight.

Best of luck. Sorry you have to deal with Al Italia.

Hi Chris - I never thought of that! The email they sent me had a 6 alphanumeric itinerary confirmation number (e.g. 'A4N56V') and a 13-digit ticket number for each passenger. So I guess the tickets look legit for now. Thanks for the suggestion.

Just a heads up -- once they have your money, don't cancel!
I canceled by phone on Mar 27. They refused to confirm the cancellation by email or otherwise. I am waiting for a refund less their $220 cancellation fee.
When I emailed they said they have to do everything by phone. When I phone they say they are "backed up" and have "no idea" when the credit will be "processed." No confirmation or documentation can be given a customer until after that happens. They are quite rude about this.
Has anyone actually gotten a refund from Alitalia?

When I was a travel agent, Polly, we did get refunds for customers. However, I saw some that took over 1.5 years to process. And that was with the agency using back door pressure to move things along.

That being said, I believe they eventually got their refund. It just took a whiiiiiiiiiile.

Nowadays, the best way to get your money back is to put your original charge on your credit card, and then let the credit card company get your refund. (You have to request the refund but when it doesn't come through, let the credit card company know.)

Since you have a ticket number, it sounds like you're probably okay, but I recently had a similar experience with another airline and thought the resolution might be helpful for other posters. I booked on-line via the airline's site - received a booking confirmation number & everything appeared to be okay. Two weeks later, I received a call from the airline - problem with the credit card. I called the issuer - fraud prevention was triggered because of the large amount for an online purchase. The issuer allowed the transaction, and I phoned the airline back. The airline then ran the transaction, and I was ticketed. So, now I'm booked AND ticketed (happiness). Both the airline and the card issuer explained that the banks have been tightening fraud prevention because of the credit crunch (that was the gist of it anyway). In fact, the airline rep indicated that a significant number of on-line bookings were being rejected. Not sure if anyone else has experienced this, but I suppose the lesson is to call your card issuer before booking your flight to ensure the charges will go through. Of course, this is something I’ve always done prior to using my card in Europe, but I didn’t think of calling them prior to booking a flight. Hope this helps others!

Michael - Thanks for letting us know your experience with the other airline. That's definitely good to know. I probably should have let AMEX know before booking the Alitalia tickets (it didn't cross my mind). Our 2 tickets came to $700 total. Hopefully, this is not too unusual or fraud-suspicious a sum for them to block. I called AMEX today to tell them not to block it.