AlicorporateUK

Even if the current (apparently calm) situation would swiftly degenerate, I genuinely doubt there would be any major consequences until the end of May and that's what the government is also saying, that Alitalia would have cash up to the end of May, should whatever aid package brought forward be hampered by Brussels and failing the basic conditions to guarantee continuity in terms of day-to-day operations. I, for instance, have corporate travel booked for the weeks to come (SCL and LAX above all) and, despite an earlier communication from our travel agent (via head of department) hinting that they would find alternative solutions sooner rather than later, it would seem that they eventually decided that only long-haul trips involving even 1 AZ leg as of JUN1 would be cancelled and people re-accommodated accordingly.

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ahmetdouas

How is the govt not showing sympathy? I mean they are throwing taxpayer money at the airline?
That is sympathetic, no?

AlicorporateUK

I see it in a slightly different way. To me, with a loan which would not even last 6 months, they are merely safeguarding passengers with imminent travel arrangements and in order to avoid, literally, chaos with people stranded all over the place. The government would not put a further penny as stated by the Prime Minister and the controlled administration is a perfectly legal step to bring any business to liquidation, unless anyone would be willing to invest further, which this time around will most certainly not be the case, especially with an election coming up.

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NickyEWR

My parents and I are scheduled to fly AZ JFK to FCO on June 21 using Skymikes for my parents and a paid Business Class ticket( made through DL) for me.
Any suggestions what I should do now( if anything)?

AlicorporateUK

I'd suggest awaiting the outcome from the forthcoming ops board (scheduled for tomorrow), which should give formal consent to the controlled administration and would give the go-ahead to the various procedures through which the government would be instigating the 6-months aid package. In the worst case scenario, given also that all flights were ticketed by Delta, you would easily be dealing with the latter and transferred on to another service with no trouble whatsoever.

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NickyEWR

Thanks for the quick reply! I feel a bit more at ease after reading your post.

yolandearagon

Thanks so much for helping to put my mind (mostly) at rest!

rje444

We have award tickets in September (JFK-VCE), returning in early October (FCO-JFK).

I don't want to have to lose the trip, as my wife has been so looking forward to it for two years (even learning Italian for it!).

I guess I could buy replacement tickets now on another airline if it is likely to be impossible that we'll be able to use our award tickets. But my wife is disabled, and can only travel in business class, so those purchased tickets would be very expensive for us.

Right now, there are some flights available which while expensive are still below the average price for business class. I worry if I wait that the price might go up if the situation with Alitalia becomes officially dire. Or that availability would become scarce if travelers start to buy up all the alternative tickets.

What I don't know is will Alitalia honor our award flights even if they are near the end of the proposed 6 months from now? And if the airline is sold before 6 months, would the new owner likely honor Alitalia award tickets?

Any advice on how to handle this situation?

AlicorporateUK

Hi rje444 and thanks for posting.

I would not hold my breath on any travel arrangements over the summer, let alone September/October. That said, my advice (as per above) to wait for the outcome of tomorrow's ops board would certainly be your first port of call and, in order to better assess your situation, it would be particularly useful if you could share with me/us the program through which you booked the flights in question: if it's Delta's SkyMiles, for instance, you would obviously be laughing as they would rapidly come up with alternatives, mostly considering that both Air France & KLM operate a number of daily services to VCE, whereas in case you used your Alitalia's MilleMiglia points you would obviously be more exposed as the special commissioner would, in case, probably liquidate the remaining stakes in the loyalty scheme in the event of a definite collapse.

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rje444

Thanks for answering. Yes, unfortunately I used Alitalia MilleMiglia points (transferred from American Express).

And if I lose the flights, I will lose all those MilleMiglia points, too, won't I?

AlicorporateUK

A very unfortunate situation but a tiny safety anchor could be represented by the fact that the loyalty program is essentially owned by Etihad, who could take the lead in re-accommodating passengers and similar other tasks. The Italian consumer protection's agency (Codacons) has already warned that they will be challenging the airline to make sure that points are safeguarded, even in the event of collapse but, in Italy, this would merely translate in a hopeless and prolonged court case, where most people would basically lose their will to live before any settlement is reached. Apart from seeing what's going to happen in tomorrow's ops board, would you perhaps consider to get re-booked on a Delta service connecting in either Paris-CDG or Amsterdam? Or I'm sure you would also easily find some availability on Air France/KLM, still via CDG/AMS.

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home222

I previously purchased two business class round trip tickets LAX - FCO for September travel. Now I'm wondering if I am going to lose every penny of the cost. Guess all I can do is wait and see what happens.

rje444

Sounds wonderful!

I did find this in the rules, but I won't count on it ever happening:

9.15 Under no circumstances will Miles spent on Award Tickets be credited back to a Member's or Company's account, unless the Award Ticket is not used, either in full or in part, due to causes that are attributable to Alitalia and without prejudice to the exceptions indicated on the website www.alitalia.com.

As far as rebooking using miles, even if this was allowed, the flights available require enormous amounts of additional points, and I just don't have enough.

So it appears that I should take your advice as to seeing what happens tomorrow, and then try to figure out if I need to pay for the flights, while keeping slim hopes that the miles might be returned to me sometime in the far future!

AlicorporateUK

For all of you due to travel in the days, weeks and months to come, I/we will be posting as many information as possible concerning the current state-of-affairs and anything which may help to better assess your individual circumstances. For the time being, though, business as usual with no signs of any deviation from the conventional standard in terms of day-to-day operations. The board meeting is still scheduled for tomorrow but, as we speak, it is looking likely that the following modus-operandi will be adopted -

Request of controlled administration (timeline: immediate/beginning of May) → 300/400M€ state funded bridge loan (timeline: pending approval from EU/~end of May) → Nomination of up to 3 special commissioners (timeline: straight after approval of bridge loan or upon accepted request for controlled administration) → New business plan (timeline: ~beginning of June) → Liquidation (timeline: provided no new investments, <6 months from start of controlled administration)

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arkangel

I've purchased two J tickets with DL for the titled itinerary, traveling in mid-July. If AZ doesn't make it until then, I know there are numerous alternate ST options to get across the "pond," but it appears that the only ST option to PMO is with AZ. Does anyone know/have a good guess what option I might be given to get from the European gateway to PMO if AZ is not flying then?