We have had a very un-human , very unpleasant , actually very cruel and harsh experience during checking in for this flight , the person who was checking my family and me in was too rude ,too racist , too unhelpful and showed no kind of professionalism I will start detailing what happen as much as I can:-because I was travelling with me wife , my 2 weeks old new born and my 3 years old daughter we had stroller with us so I asked her to allow us to send the carry on bags with the cargo so we do not have to move a round with the bags during transit as we need to look after the kids and we have to wheel the Stoller , she arrogantly refused and said that is against the rules and that I have to pay 300$ to do so , I explained here how inconvenient it will be for us to move with 3 carry ons plus a stroller but she never helped or listened ,she did not allow me to check is my laptop bag saying it exceeds 2 kg , I asked her that any a laptop bag will exceed 2 kg , but the said that's the max , I wanted her to show me the policy that states the 2 kg , but she never came up with Looked online but it was not there ,even though she insisted and I had to exclude one of my carry ons and replace with my laptop bag to be able to take it as it weighted 6 kg , the carry on I exclude had so many important items however I got rid of it ,she was very rude person , She asked as not to take the carry on behind her back to the gate as if we are lairs and thieves .at one time shed rudely said we need to step aside and she will discontinue or check in until we fix or issues very rude way actually , when I asked her to make sure our seats are where we can have a bassinet for the baby she replied I am not sure I will see if I can do so ,also when I asked here if the Stoller is labelled and if it's arranged to be picked up at transit ,shed replied with very rude and nasty way that I have to go look and see .we have had a nightmarish transit of 10 hrs in Rome as I had to move a round with 4 carry ons +3 personal bags and diaper bag for the new born + my laptop + stroller and baby cot , I have got a back pain , my wife is same. at a time the new born was a bout to fall down when my wife was trying to assist me with handling the bags all of this because of this terrible check in person , she said her first name is Sandy .please keep me update on what is going to be done about this

I would like to complain about a cancellaton in my connection. The airline is not offering ways to reach the destiny in the same date even having flights available. The fligh is scheaduled to be 12/04/17 SP-Rome-Milaan and the cancelled the Rome-Milan. The just offer to cancel my trip what means that I will lose every hotel, flights and cars already contracted. The reservation code is UBJPFK

I flew with Alitalia to Catania, Sicily on August 26, 2014. I had no idea then that my experience with this airline was going to be a very bad one. I recommend to everyone do not fly with Alitalia – it is the worst airline I have ever flow with. Let's begin with the problems:

The airplane was late leaving from Toronto - this is not unusual sine all the flights we took with Alitalia throughout our holiday were late leaving and arriving. When we landed in Catania, Sicily our baggage was lost. I was livid - the complaint line for the same issue was at least an hour long. After finally searching back and forth and not finding our luggage, we headed to the complaint counter. First of all the 2 attendants there seemed to really dislike their jobs - they were rude, not at all sympathetic and honesty speaking did not give care and were not willing to help. After we launched our complaint for the missing luggage, we did not have any correspondence from Alitalia for 5 days even though the recording stated that on the second day our luggage was found but did not indicate where the luggage was. Finally, I gave in after 5 days of no clothes or personal necessities, and went back to the airport which was 45 minutes away from where I was staying and again lined up to get the luggage. One hour later I finally got my luggage - no explanation was given as to why the luggage was lost and no apologies. Rude and very unprofessional customer service.

We flew back to Toronto starting Sept 11, 2014. Our fight leaving from Catania was over an hour late. We obviously missed our fight connection to Rome . In Rome, we searched over 3 hours for someone to help us with getting another flight. No Alitalia personnel was willing to assist us with our issue and when we did stopped someone from Alitalia, they simply laughed in our faces and told us they could not help. We met a group of 7 senior citizens in Rome, who like us were headed to Toronto and had missed their connecting flights from Rome to Toronto. They had left from Reggio Calabria – their flight was also late leaving and arrived late in Rome. After walking back and forth from one counter to another, we finally got a customer rep from Alitalia that advised us that we needed to go to the Alitalia booth to ask for accommodations.

Well, that was another experience!!!! After lining up with the other 7 senior citizens to talk to an Alitalia rep, we quickly noticed that it was a chaos. People were budding in screaming and demanding service. We waited in line for over 1 ½ hours to the front of the line. All of a sudden, a Russian passenger, who obviously was really “ticked” off starting screaming at the top of his lungs words in Russian, which no one understood. This fiasco went on for over ½ hour and no one from the Alitalia personnel attempted to calm him down or ask him to take his place in line. Like dummies they stood there looking and whispered in Italian. One of the customers in line which was flying from Rome to Boston, finally lost her temper and asked one of the Alitalia personnel to call the authorities. Finally within 15 minutes 5 Guardia di Finanzia officers came to talk to the man. They told him in Italian “ come with us”. But the guy did not speak Italian and started screaming louder in Russian. After about another 15 minutes the Russian passenger pushed one of senior citizens on the floor and that is when 10 airport authorities jumped on him to restrain him. But the Russian guy was so strong that the authorities had trouble taking him down. The Russian passenger attempted to confiscated a gun from one of the authorities, but he was not successful. After over ½ hour they finally put handcuffs on him and tied him to a steel pole on the floor. The Russian man broke free from the handcuffs and again the authorities attempted to handcuff him. The Russian man was bleeding from his nose and from his wrists as he was cut by the handcuffs. During this whole time, the silly Alitalia personnel were busy looking at the events instead of clearing the passengers from the danger scene and as a result many passengers budded in to the front of the line and we lost our place in line. The Russian man was given a needle to calm him down. He was taken away after an hour and we were able to finally speak to an Alitalia customer service rep. We were advised – all 9 of us flying to Toronto that we could not get a flight to Toronto until Friday (the next day). We were given hotel vouchers for a room and food and told to go to a bus bay to get a bus to the hotel. When we arrived at the bus bay, we read that the last bus was 7:00. Therefore, there was no bus until the next morning. It was now 9:00 therefore we needed to pay 50 euros to get a bus to the hotel. After a lousy cheap meal at the hotel we went to our rooms. At 8:00 the next morning we took a bus to the airport of Rome from our hotel and after ½ hour of staying in line, we were given a flight pass from Rome to Boston, where we could connect for a flight to Toronto with Air Canada.

The airplane in Rome left late for Boston and as result we lost the plane that connected us from Boston to Toronto. We only had ½ hour to get our luggage, go through customs and then board the airplane. Even if we were superheros, we would not have been able to do so as the line up for the US customs was at least 2 hours long and obviously the silly Alitalia rep’s that arranged our flight should have known this. We finally tracked down an Alitalia representative and told her that she needed to make us go ahead of the lineup so that we could make our connection to Toronto. As a result, she had no idea what to do and spent over an hour arguing with us instead of helping us. After finally passing the US customs, we ran from Terminal E to Terminal B to catch our flight with Air Canada and with 7 senior citizens trailing behind for over 45 minutes, we arrived at the Air Canada booth too late. Some of the senior citizens were having heart palpitations and were profusely sweating while my husband and I being the younger ones, ran to the Air Canada booth to stop the plane. To our surprise, the plane has left on time and the Air Canada personnel had made 5 attempts to get the Alitalia personnel to answer the phone, but no one answered. We were advised by the Air Canada rep that we could catch a flight on Saturday to Toronto. The Air Canada rep was wonderful. She was very sympathetic and even made us use the phone to call our loved ones to advise them that we were not coming home until the next day. She assured all of us that we would be on the Saturday flight to Toronto. She also advised us that she could not give us hotel vouchers since Alitalia was the airline that did not keep their obligations. Back to terminal E to speak to the Alitalia rep. The Alitalia rep again argued with us that the flight was not late and after speaking in Italian to another rep (I understand Italian) she was advised that the plane was indeed late arriving and that she needed to give all 9 of us vouchers for a hotel in Boston. We finally tracked down a shuttle from the airport to the hotel in Boston where we stayed for the night. The next morning at about 4:00 a.m. we left the hotel and arrived at the Boston airport to get our tickets for a flight to Toronto from the Air Canada booth. What a pleasure to deal with – nice and friendly people who were stunned to hear of our ordeal and again assured us that we had seats for the flight to Toronto. We finally landed in Toronto – we kissed the ground when we arrived only to learn that our luggage had been lost again!!!

The Air Canada booth to claim the lost baggage was very fast and very efficient and after 3 days our bags were delivered to our home. This is what I call great service – congratulations Air Canada!

The other passenger that suffered this whole ordeal with us were:

Mr. & Mrs. Nardi 905-887-5084
Antonia & her husband – 905-851-2541
Maria Cuciniti from Buffalo -716-683-4014
And 2 other gentlemen which I do not have phone number for

I paid for a direct flight to Rome which I did not get and arrived 2 days late. We all need to be compensated for the lousy and unprofessional service that Alitalia provided us. I will never, never, never fly Alitalia again and have spoken to many of my colleagues and discouraged them from taking a flight with Alitalia. Alitalia needs to be responsible for the mess they caused and for the inconvenience to 9 passengers who were greatly inconvenienced by the lack of service and the very inefficient way were our issues where handled.

I am more than happy to meet with someone from Alitalia to explain further. I can be reached at 905-558-0590 (home) or at [email protected]

Alitalia – be accountable and compensate us for the mess you caused!!! We all went through a lot – not to mention the mental and physical hardship.

Be responsible for your actions and compensate all our us for our troubles!!!

I flew with Alitalia to Catania, Sicily on August 26, 2014 on Flight AZ651. I had no idea then that my experience with this airline was going to be a very bad one. I recommend to everyone do not fly with Alitalia – it is the worst airline I have ever flow with. Let's begin with the problems:

The airplane was late leaving from Toronto - this is not unusual sine all the flights we took with Alitalia throughout our holiday were late leaving and arriving. When we landed in Catania, Sicily our baggage was lost. I was livid - the complaint line for the same issue was at least an hour long. After finally searching back and forth and not finding our luggage, we headed to the complaint counter. First of all the 2 attendants there seemed to really dislike their jobs - they were rude, not at all sympathetic and honesty speaking did not give care and were not willing to help. After we launched our complaint for the missing luggage, we did not have any correspondence from Alitalia for 5 days even though the recording stated that on the second day our luggage was found but did not indicate where the luggage was. Finally, I gave in after 5 days of no clothes or personal necessities, and went back to the airport which was 45 minutes away from where I was staying and again lined up to get the luggage. One hour later I finally got my luggage - no explanation was given as to why the luggage was lost and no apologies. Rude and very unprofessional customer service.

We flew back to Toronto starting Sept 11, 2014. Our fight leaving from Catania was over an hour late-flight AZ71756. We obviously missed our fight connection to Rome . In Rome, we searched over 3 hours for someone to help us with getting another flight. No Alitalia personnel was willing to assist us with our issue and when we did stopped someone from Alitalia, they simply laughed in our faces and told us they could not help. We met a group of 7 senior citizens in Rome, who like us were headed to Toronto and had missed their connecting flights from Rome to Toronto. They had left from Reggio Calabria – their flight was also late leaving and arrived late in Rome. After walking back and forth from one counter to another, we finally got a customer rep from Alitalia that advised us that we needed to go to the Alitalia booth to ask for accommodations.

Well, that was another experience!!!! After lining up with the other 7 senior citizens to talk to an Alitalia rep, we quickly noticed that it was a chaos. People were budding in screaming and demanding service. We waited in line for over 1 ½ hours to the front of the line. All of a sudden, a Russian passenger, who obviously was really “ticked” off starting screaming at the top of his lungs words in Russian, which no one understood. This fiasco went on for over ½ hour and no one from the Alitalia personnel attempted to calm him down or ask him to take his place in line. Like dummies they stood there looking and whispered in Italian. One of the customers in line which was flying from Rome to Boston, finally lost her temper and asked one of the Alitalia personnel to call the authorities. Finally within 15 minutes 5 Guardia di Finanzia officers came to talk to the man. They told him in Italian “ come with us”. But the guy did not speak Italian and started screaming louder in Russian. After about another 15 minutes the Russian passenger pushed one of senior citizens on the floor and that is when 10 airport authorities jumped on him to restrain him. But the Russian guy was so strong that the authorities had trouble taking him down. The Russian passenger attempted to confiscated a gun from one of the authorities, but he was not successful. After over ½ hour they finally put handcuffs on him and tied him to a steel pole on the floor. The Russian man broke free from the handcuffs and again the authorities attempted to handcuff him. The Russian man was bleeding from his nose and from his wrists as he was cut by the handcuffs. During this whole time, the silly Alitalia personnel were busy looking at the events instead of clearing the passengers from the danger scene and as a result many passengers budded in to the front of the line and we lost our place in line. The Russian man was given a needle to calm him down. He was taken away after an hour and we were able to finally speak to an Alitalia customer service rep. We were advised – all 9 of us flying to Toronto that we could not get a flight to Toronto until Friday (the next day). We were given hotel vouchers for a room and food and told to go to a bus bay to get a bus to the hotel. When we arrived at the bus bay, we read that the last bus was 7:00. Therefore, there was no bus until the next morning. It was now 9:00 therefore we needed to pay 50 euros to get a bus to the hotel. After a lousy cheap meal at the hotel we went to our rooms. At 8:00 the next morning we took a bus to the airport of Rome from our hotel and after ½ hour of staying in line, we were given a flight pass from Rome to Boston, where we could connect for a flight to Toronto with Air Canada.

The airplane in Rome left late for Boston and as result we lost the plane that connected us from Boston to Toronto. We only had ½ hour to get our luggage, go through customs and then board the airplane. Even if we were superheros, we would not have been able to do so as the line up for the US customs was at least 2 hours long and obviously the silly Alitalia rep’s that arranged our flight should have known this. We finally tracked down an Alitalia representative and told her that she needed to make us go ahead of the lineup so that we could make our connection to Toronto. As a result, she had no idea what to do and spent over an hour arguing with us instead of helping us. After finally passing the US customs, we ran from Terminal E to Terminal B to catch our flight with Air Canada and with 7 senior citizens trailing behind for over 45 minutes, we arrived at the Air Canada booth too late. Some of the senior citizens were having heart palpitations and were profusely sweating while my husband and I being the younger ones, ran to the Air Canada booth to stop the plane. To our surprise, the plane has left on time and the Air Canada personnel had made 5 attempts to get the Alitalia personnel to answer the phone, but no one answered. We were advised by the Air Canada rep that we could catch a flight on Saturday to Toronto. The Air Canada rep was wonderful. She was very sympathetic and even made us use the phone to call our loved ones to advise them that we were not coming home until the next day. She assured all of us that we would be on the Saturday flight to Toronto. She also advised us that she could not give us hotel vouchers since Alitalia was the airline that did not keep their obligations. Back to terminal E to speak to the Alitalia rep. The Alitalia rep again argued with us that the flight was not late and after speaking in Italian to another rep (I understand Italian) she was advised that the plane was indeed late arriving and that she needed to give all 9 of us vouchers for a hotel in Boston. We finally tracked down a shuttle from the airport to the hotel in Boston where we stayed for the night. The next morning at about 4:00 a.m. we left the hotel and arrived at the Boston airport to get our tickets for a flight to Toronto from the Air Canada booth. What a pleasure to deal with – nice and friendly people who were stunned to hear of our ordeal and again assured us that we had seats for the flight to Toronto. We finally landed in Toronto – we kissed the ground when we arrived only to learn that our luggage had been lost again!!!

The Air Canada booth to claim the lost baggage was very fast and very efficient and after 3 days our bags were delivered to our home. This is what I call great service – congratulations Air Canada!

The other passenger that suffered this whole ordeal with us were:

Mr. & Mrs. Nardi 905-887-5084
Antonia & her husband – 905-851-2541
Maria Cuciniti from Buffalo -716-683-4014
And 2 other gentlemen which I do not have phone number for

I paid for a direct flight to Rome which I did not get and arrived 2 days late. We all need to be compensated for the lousy and unprofessional service that Alitalia provided us. I will never, never, never fly Alitalia again and have spoken to many of my colleagues and discouraged them from taking a flight with Alitalia. Alitalia needs to be responsible for the mess they caused and for the inconvenience to 9 passengers who were greatly inconvenienced by the lack of service and the very inefficient way were our issues where handled.

I am more than happy to meet with someone from Alitalia to explain further. I can be reached at 905-558-0590 (home) or at [email protected]

Alitalia – be accountable and compensate us for the mess you caused!!! We all went through a lot – not to mention the mental and physical hardship.

Be responsible for your actions and compensate all our us for our troubles!!!

The following is the letter my partner and I have written to Alitalia without get any answer from them. Showing us how awful and useless they are.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN
Unsatisfactory Service- Alitalia Roma Fiumicino- Monday, 25th April 2011.
I am writing to complain about the service I received from your airport staff at Fiumicino, Rome at 08.10am on Monday morning, 25 April 2011.
We were holding valid tickets and supposed to fly from Fiumicino at 09.10 to Malpensa and another at 15.30 from Linate with your airline.
Because of the extremely inefficient and unhelpful service we received from your staff at check in desk where she was more efficient answering phone calls from her mobile or chatting with her colleagues about the days off. Even if we arrived at least 40 minutes in advance, your staff at check in desk suggested us to ditch our luggage as it was too late to check in the luggage, which is bearable. However, she told us to go straight to the gate without checking us in. Of course we were stopped by staff at security control by no boarding card. Without giving us the valid boarding pass, your business check in desk staff told us to use the information from our E-Booking email. She then gave us a RED boarding pass without any check in details that allowed us to cross the control. Then we were delayed and eventually late for our flight to Milano.
After all that mess happened, we were allowed to go into the control zone, without boarding pass but advised to go to ticket desk inside control zone!! I asked another Alitalia staff at ticket desk about some information. She answered rudely that; “ If you need any information, you have to ask the tourist information!” Finishing that sentence with” Fxxxing tourists”.
Because the tickets were not valid, we lost the flight that morning. No one helped us by giving correct information. We asked to be book onto the next fly for Malpensa, however because the lost of our flight at 09.10pm we were not allowed to use our already booked tickets for the afternoon flight.
They said that our tickets were invalided and the only way for us to leave the airport was to buy new tickets.
In conclusion, we came back to London directly without our luggage, having to purchase new tickets for a total of 980 Euro and waste 5 hours trying to obtain right information from your staff at airport. This was certainly not a pleasant experience for us to use Alitalia again or recommend it to our friends. Because the most terribly unorganised service we have ever encountered, our Easter holiday in Rome was ruined.
I have been a loyal customer of yours for the last ten years and was very upset to be treated so rudely in all aspect of my journey inside the Airport. I look forward to receiving an apology from you and the refund of our previous tickets that we did not have the chance to use.
Yours disappointed customer


Mr.Daniele Piddiu

sent to Alitalia customer services:

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Could poor customer service from companies such as Alitalia lead to financial ruin and EU expulsion for Italy?

My wife was left distraught following what I can only describe as abuse by your staff today. As a consequence she has vowed never to return to Italy despite having family there.

A basic search on the internet suggests that she is far from alone in this sentiment and indeed that Alitalia could seriously undermine Italian tourism.

This would in turn affect the Italian economy, the European Economy, the stock markets and the viability of the European Union.

Italy, as an unfortunate member of PIIGS has an awful lot to lose it Alitalia continues to abuse tourists in the way you appear to be doing at the moment.

I have and will continue to raise this matter with every finance minister in Europe.


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Article follows:

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Could poor customer service from companies such as Alitalia lead to financial ruin and EU expulsion for Italy?


In 2011 tourism represented 4.8 per cent of GDP for Italy and employed 9 percent of the Italian workforce.

This means that for every 10 people in Italy at least one of them works in tourism, or for every two Italian families, one breadwinner works in tourism.

Unfortunately, for Italy, this means that customer service and tourists are not only important to Italy as a country, but also as an economy and as a member of the European Union.

This becomes very troubling indeed when we take into the account the concerning drop in tourism in Italy and then read about the appalling treatment of tourists by Italian companies when they are in Italy that appears to have led to this decline.

Consider the case of Alitalia who are not only the subject of mass customer complaints due to their appalling treatment of tourists using their services but have also been the subject of Class Actions in the United States for their failures, with web sites growing up to co-ordinate disgruntled tourists who believe that not only have they been mistreated but also that Alitalia has not complied with European legislation.

A recent complaint passed to the UK Foreign Office detailed a lone female British tourist who not only felt that she had been discriminated against, but who lost her luggage, wedding photographs and gifts as a result of what she claims is the negligence of Alitalia staff who then left her stranded in Rome FCO airport suffering from a medical condition that needed first aid and with no attempt whatsoever to help their customer.

Does Italy really want to send a message to its tourists that they are unwelcome, unnecessary and unimportant or is it time for the Italian Government to undertake a thorough review of companies like Alitalia to ensure the safe return of tourists to the Italian heartland and economy.

Can Italy as an economy afford to allow this abuse of its tourists to continue and indeed can Europe as a United Economy afford for Italy to drive away 5 per cent of its GDP resulting in the loss of 9 percent of its workforce.

Surely now is the time for the Italian Government and the European Union to wake up to the disaster-in-waiting and financial ruin for Italy and the EU that is poor customer service in Italy.