Alitalia 

# Avoid - incredibly poor customer support #

Like so many others, Alitalia has taken my money due to a cancelled COVID-19 flight. I've been very patient - waiting 3 months since I know they must be impacted by so many customer issues.

But after all that? They won't refund my flight - despite EU law that says cancelled flights require a refund. And their telephone customer support? Rude and incompetent - refusing to connect me to a manager when I politely asked to speak to someone else.

Avoid Alitalia - seriously.

The worst experience with an airline in my entire life, and I'm an Italian person living abroad which usually takes around 20 to 30 flights per year, so I have quite a lot experience with airlines. Take some pop-corn and enjoy the story, it is hilarious and scary at the same time.

I booked a return ticket London-Rome 24th-28th of July for visiting my family. Then around beginning of July we had a bad family situation for which I had to anticipate my trip, so I've decided to book another return ticket London-Rome 9-19th of July. I fly to Rome on the 9th, and get to the city quite ok. Then around the 15th I take the decision to not come back to London on the 19th, but stay in Rome until the 28th. Decided to do so also because Alitalia (this great airline) took a lot of proud on their flexible services, for which you can change any flight at no extra cost. Well guess what? The only way to change flights was by calling their customer service (yes why in 2020 you would allow such a complex mechanism of changing flights online?), and obviously it was impossible to get ahold of someone. I tried for an entire week, calling between 10 and 30 times per day, with no luck (I have phone company proof of this). Moreover the phone line is not free, you actually pay every time you call them (such a scam). I ended up paying around 60 Euros of phone bill, with no luck. But wait for it, the story is not finished, there is an even more tragic ending.
At this point I realised I'm not able to change flights, and started to live with it. I still have my return flight to London on the 28th, and I told myself to be patient because the situation with the current pandemic is not easy for many people, Alitalia probably had to handle to many phone calls and different cases that they might be for sure overwhelmed with work. Fine. Then I show up at the airport on the 28th of July, to discover that my return ticket has been cancelled because I did not show up on the first flight. What??? Yes, apparently this great airline automatically cancelled a return ticket if you do not use the first flight, and you do not communicate your decision within 24 hours of the first flight departure. And what is the way of communicating such decision? By calling the customer service, easy! I told my impossibility of reaching the customer service for an entire week at the airport personal, and as an answer I get 'Yes you are right, most of our employers are on furlough at the moment and that is why nobody usually picks up the phone'. Awesome, really great company. At this point I did not know whether to cry or try to kill someone at the airport, despite my complains and my anger there was nothing I could do, I had to buy another flight to be able to get back on the same day, for the cheap price of €110. What a great experience and great company!

A simple return flight London-Rome costed me more than €1000 Euros, 5 flights in total and countless hours spent on the phone. Let alone my frustration and feeling of helplessness. I believe I've tried more than 40 different airlines in my life, from low cost to high luxury ones, flying both economy and business. This was by far the worst experience of my life, and what really makes me sad is that it is from the representative airline of my country. I am ashamed, and feel sorry for all the people who will have to travel with them. I will make sure none of my friends will ever use Alitalia again, and my advice to you is to avoid it as much as you can.

Even though we are not allowed to be in the country from which our flight apparently has left from we were refused returns/refunds/travel vouchers. Rubbish customer service. They dont even know what they are talking about. Got told not to stress as chances are our flight will be cancelled but apparently it went ahead and because we were on the other side of the globe unable to leave our country it doesnt matter we still had to pay even tho we had informed them MONTHS in advance. All they want is to stress you out and keep your money.

Call center will hang up your calls after a 30 minutes wait, they don't answer to emails, this is a government founded company and they know they can act with impunity because the State will always cover for them. They literally took my money and are not going to give it back.

WOW!! Not even going to describe my experience with this company, the negative reviews here speak volumes and not one response from management, or the customer service team to even TRY and quell some of the anger here, unbelievable....
What a sad ending to an airline with such history, your predecessors would undoubtedly be ashamed.
This is what happens when you employ people who just turn up to work to collect the money, no interest in the company, no interest in the job, no interest in the people who pay their salaries.....
Sadly becoming more and more reflective in most other large establishments.
Alitalia employees !! Make sure your CVs are up to date, you're all gonna need them soon, COVID couldn't have happened soon enough for this airline, already on the decline well before.....

I have been waiting on a refund for a canceled flight for over 5 months. They are ignoring my efforts to contact them. Do not fly with these scammers.

They refuse to pay back my ticket which was cancelled due to covid. Already 4 months sending emails en trying to call customer service... HORRIBLE SCAM

Vergogna! Voli cancellati, Call center irraggiungibile

My flight was cancelled 3 times, and each time instead of a refund they gave me a voucher that could be claimed only if calling the customer service. After paying a difference each times I rescheduled the flight, the flight was cancelled right after. Basically, I was simply buying vouchers for flights I could never take. After this, they started to cut the customer service so that no one was able to contact them for claiming refunds. ALITALIA IS DEFINITELY ON THE TOP OF MY LIST OF SERVICES TO AVOID FROM HERE ON OUT!

Alitalia not refunding Cruise2 for holiday cancelled in mid-February. We have been waiting 5 months and customer service team cannot tell me when they will refund our agent so they can refund us, just say we have to be patient. We have been patient, 5 months patient! Despicable way to treat consumers.

I can’t believe employees can be so. Rude and then hang up.

Is this really a national airline? Are these people actually trained? Are employees allowed to hang up on customers when they are polite (I have the call recorded).

I can not believe the arrogance and disrespect of this service. I would be ashamed.

All this after cancelling a clients flight. I guess if they keep this up they will all be out of work shortly anyway as nobody will be using their service.

NEVER FLY WITH THIS BAD COMPANY!!!
This company should have 0 stars and 0% of satisfies.
One of the worst services I have faced. I had a flight reservation in the beginning of April and was cancelled because of COVID19, and today is 7th of July and have not got a refund yet.
When I call their customer service, I must wait for at least 1 hour to get help.

Worst airliner.
0 communication.
You can not contact them.
Our flight was cancelled in april due Covid-19 but they never reply on refund request, despite it is my right.
Now almost 4 months later still nothing.

Dont fly with them, rather pay extra few euros to fly with the proper airline and let this airline go bankrupt.

Due to covid19 our flight in may was cancelled. Still waiting for our refund or any response from alitalia... They are not reachable. Very bad service!!!

don't buy it's a legalized scam

Volo cancellato e call center penoso e 'addestrato', come si fa con gli animali, a far spazientire la gente al telefono pur di evitare i rimborsi.Vi auguro di cuore un nuovo fallimento e di sparire per sempre.

Abysmal service - flights to/from Rome from Heathrow cancelled by Alitalia and told I would get refund in 30 days
Now 50 days and no contact whatsoever
I will NEVER book Alitalia again

Flight cancelled by Alitalia because of Covid-19. Asked for refund. Waited more than one month, no refund. Sent many emails, no answer. Called a few times, no answer while still being charged for the call. NO REFUND GIVEN! Never ever will be using Alitalia again!

An airline with dubious policies when it comes to refunding tickets for COVID-19 and very poor customer service. If you ever need to call them you will be sent from one end to the other and eventually hang-up on.
If you can avoid, chose something else.

Still no response or solution from Alitalia after 15 messages. Costumer service will talk to you in broken Dutch. Not able to respond to basic question and the employee will end the call.