fasteddie1971

Returning to Italy after a family holiday, I was supposed to have flown ICN-FCO yesterday afternoon (on AZ 759, i.e. Alitalia metal) with wife and son on (AZ) award tickets (two of us in J, one in Y).

After a long wait in the lounge with no info for our flight shown on the screen (btw I hate it when they refuse to post any information in the "status" column - surely as a bare minimum they should write "delayed, please wait" rather than leaving it blank and making me nervous!) we were told by the KAL lounge assistants (I refuse to refer to them as dragons, since they were very nice!) to go to the gate, but that the flight would be cancelled.

We spoke to the harrassed AZ station chief and one of the crew members...there was a problem with the wheels on the A330 and we'd have to await a spare part. So, cause of delay is mechanical failure.

Eventually after much waiting, then a traipse through the terminal, transfer across the airport by bus, re-immigration and reclaim of bags, we were bussed to a hotel 20 mins away, where I am now, the morning after. We've just been told we will take off at 01:00 tonight, i.e. a 35 hour delay. These things happen though, and fortunately it's the end of our holiday not the start (felt sorry for all the folk missing onward connections and having their holiday plans messed up). Though it's causing me some issues at work, which I could do without.

Would appreciate anyone's advice/opinion on the following points:

1) Regulation 261/2004 compensation.
From what I can gather we would be entitled to €600 of compensation for this kind of delay (x 3 as there are three of us?) however I read somewhere about an exclusion for discounted tickets not available to the general public. According to Wikipedia this is applicable to all passengers "unless the passenger is travelling on a free or discounted ticket not available to the general public, other than a ticket obtained from a frequent flyer programme." Which would imply that we would in fact be eligible for compensation (but I'm of course wary of believing everything on Wikipedia). So, are we entitled to this compensation travelling on award tickets? Has anyone else claimed from AZ, and if so what is the process?

2) Travel insurance compensation
My private travel insurance pays out €20 for every 10 hours of delay, with no excess, so I'd be entitled to €60. But I need to produce some sort of documentation from Alitalia to prove the delay (length and cause, I guess). Do you know how I might obtain this?

3) STE+ special treatment
Well, there wasn't any! I don't want to get all diva-ish about it, and I realise that the ground staff were stressed and doing their best, but there seemed no effort to take care of Business/STE+ passengers. I admit my mindset is that of an old school Brit who stoically accepts poor service as a matter of course, but I wonder if I should have expected a bit more. It's not like the hotel they've put us all up in is a dump or anything (quite the opposite; one of the nicest hotels we've had all holiday in fact!) but in the airport there was no attempt to identify us and perhaps allow us to wait in a lounge while it was being sorted out etc; or even just receive information in English (OK, 95% of the pax were Korean nationals, but it's unacceptable for the announcements to have been made exclusively in Korean - I had to keep booming out "and in English?" every single time to get a translation!)
I mean, lounge access and priority check in are all very nice, but it's in these moments of disruption that status should provide its real benefit, but (so far) in this instance that's not been the case at all. Any comments?

Air Rarotonga

1) You answered your question by yourself (wikipedia). File with AZ or here: https://www.enac.gov.it/La_Normativa...462364156.html

2)

• New bording passes?
• http://www.flightradar24.com/data?
• Contact Alitalia?

3)

• Did you not wear your Elite Plus card around your neck to be recognized?
• What were your expectations with your Elite Plus Card?

I guess you received all your Elite Plus benefits, that you've been entiteled for?
First AZ flights?

nldogbert

I think this is a bit rude comments to the OP. Yes, i agree that no matter as being a E+ or flying in J should not be provided with exceptionally special treatment, but in my opinion the station manager here handled the situation very badly.
- He/She could have at least informed the lounge to keep those passengers there in the lounge to deal with later or sooner and sending at least 1-2 agents to sort them out there rather than to pull them into the masses down at the gate.
- Information should have been provided in English.
- Furthermore, I think they could have also pro-actively based on space available rebook at least the J-passengers (and other passengers pressed for time) to the EY, AF , KLM, KAL service to reduce the incovenience as much as possible to other destinations in Europe or where AZ can pick them up to their final destination (this is what partner/alliances are for!)

All in all, a very bad handling at this AZ outpost station in my opinion.

Cheers!

Air Rarotonga

It was not my intention to be rude, maybe I forgot a smiley . Just want to get back OP on the ground of the reality .

Don't forget that ICN is an outstation of AZ and the communication between gate and lounge will not work as maybe in their hubs in Italy. And yes, they could have done this and that and etc...

I really love to fly AZ, same with EY. As long as everything goes right, excellent airlines! But my biggest fear is to be stocked with those airlines on any irregularity... I really know their ground service too good!

On the other way, if you fly AZ and expect - due to alliance status - a priviledged service à la EK F or TG F, then you're flying the wrong movie.

ExpatSomchai

I think you need to share further information on what type of ticket you have as you are tending to insinuate that it is possibly something special.

MSPeconomist

1) The exclusion seems to apply mainly to nonrevs.

2) A simple way would be to take screen shots or print flight status for your flight and its replacement from the AZ website. Third party websites like flightaware.com document actual departure and arrival times too, but might be viewed as less official. You could also photograph airport monitors. Of course, you'll need to provide copies of your final boarding passes as well as the ininerary and receipt showing the original flights on which you were ticketed. [I'm guessing that the delayed replacement flight will be operated as a special section of your original flight.]

warakorn

AZ should have rerouted you with other Skyteam carriers (e.g. AF, KL, KE) at the earliest possibility.
With a noon departure, AZ should have rebooked you either on the midnight KLM service to AMS,

MSPeconomist

They also could have routed passengers the long way around, through the USA on DL/KE, even though it's probably not a legal routing.