Hi y'all! I will be making my first trip to Rome this October, and am so excited I can barely stand it. The trip to Rome is straight Delta, but the trip coming home is a Delta/Alitalia codeshare. I e-mailed Delta and asked if their (generous) baggage rules, or Alitalia's baggage rules would apply. They said, Alitalia. So now, I realize that my beloved carry-on isn't going to make the stingy 11-pound weight limit, and I'm having nightmares about them losing my luggage. It's a nonstop flight home, luckily, but I'm still really nervous about it. Has anyone here had any experiences with a Delta/Alitalis codeshare flight? Do the Alitalia folks really enforce the carryon rules? Does anybody have any Pepto Bismol?? LOL!
Julia....you're coming home, not going. It won't be as bad. Just make sure anything of value is in your "smaller" carry-on bag that you can take onto the plane with you.
Julia - as poster above said, since its your return flight you shouldn't be nearly as nervous about checking your bag. We almost always check our bag on the flight home as by the time we are done we have used the expandable option, loaded it with things we can't carry on anyway (like bottles of wine), etc. And we also used Alitalia for an inter-Italy flight and went ahead and checked with them, no problem.
If it makes you feel any better, I flew Continental-Alitalia in Dec 2007. Carried on going over with a small backpack and a tote. The bags might have been over 11 pounds, but they never bothered to weigh it. The Alitalia agent eyed my bags, I think checking how many I had, but they must have passed muster.
Generally, rumor has it they don't enforce the weight limit very stringently (they are Italian after all!) However, like the other posters said, since it will only be on the flight home, you are probably OK to check a bag. I checked an expandable duffle with wine, olive oil, and dirty clothes and it made it from Rome - Newark - Seattle just fine.
I've had my bag lost before--and it was on the return trip (long story why, but I wasn't really surprised that it got lost--I was just happy to have gotten a flight home at the time!) and it was returned to me in about a week. But IT WAS RETURNED--caps for emphasis and, hopefully, reassurance, not for yelling ;-) the most important thing is that your possessions get to where you are going when you are going there--when you get back, you'll have all of the rest of your 'stuff' waiting for you at home. Just bring anything you cannot live without as a carry on--a laptop, prescription drugs, your phone--which can't weigh more than 11 pounds anyway--and have a GREAT trip!!!
Thanks, y'all! :) I am really thrilled to be going!
I flew Al Italia last Sept. from Rome to Catania. I had repacked several times to make sure I had all I needed for 2-3 days in my carryon tote and that it was under the weight limit. When I went to check my RS rolling bag for the flight from Rome to Sicily, the man said, don't check your bag-they lose bags. I said, but it is too heavy. He said try it, so I did-after all I was in Italy where rules are a starting point. Well, they let me on the flight with no problems. Returning to Rome, I checked my bag, sure that I would never see it again. Well, the good news is I waited for almost an hour at FCO, but it did eventually come down the carousel. I wish you the same good luck with them that I had.