The plan was simple enough: Take a 9pm train from Rome Termini up to Munich, arrive at 8am, plenty of time to get to MUC to get the US flight to PHL. Even with a delay.... I dropped by Termini station each of several nights beforehand, and checked out the trains' reliability, which on each night, was running perfectly. Even saw one depart right on the minute, so I had high hopes.

On the night of departure, the train became subject to a wildcat railroad strike up in Austria, cancelling most train service across Austria (at least that's what the ITALIAN train lady told me, but she had documentation...anyway). This train now was not due out until 1am (and in reality it turned out to be 4am), so that made it impossible to make that MUC flight.

Now for the fun part....HOW in the world does one reach USAIR in Italy? The phone number on the ticket jacket didn't work, even with a variety of phone cards. There is seemingly no "411" in Italy. Nor are there Operators when you push the "O" button, and (of course), no instructions for any of this on the phones. International phone cards to the 800 # in the USA didn't work. I tried calling area code 212 (just hoping that NYC was such a huge area, I would luck out) directory assistance, looking for a # to US that didn't have an 800 area code, and that didn't work either. No luck. All I got was a USAIR Attache number, which didn't work either, and the lady that answered that phone had NO clue who US was....

Now, this was 10pm, and going out to the airport was not an option, nor were any city ticket offices, American Express, etc. open at that hour, even IF I could have found them.....

Believe me, the prosect of being totally stranded, no hotel, no flight, NO WAY OUT in Rome is not pretty, esp. with all of the "lurkers" in that train station "offering help".

So HOW IN THE WORLD DO YOU REACH this company in Italy???? Trust me, I will never go out of the country again without detailed information on how to reach help (English)should situations like this arise. However, I would think that getting at least a directory assistance operator would be a lot more universal...

(If you're wondering how I got out of there...just by pure luck, I had seen a billboard ad for an airline called Germania Express up in Munich, advertising flights from ROM to MUC. I went out in the middle of the night to the Easy Internet Cafe (luggage in hand), and looked them up. Luckily, they had a VERY affordable flight the next morning which made a perfect connection in MUC....this plane landed at the same time the US did, saw it across the runway landing!). Whew!!!! And, to top it off, this was only the 2nd day that Germania had offered this service from Rome...!!!

I've called the US office in Rome before, using the number on the ticket jacket, so I'm not sure what your problem was. Even if you did connect with that office, though, I doubt you would've spoken to a live person at that hour.

Sorry about the train strike -- those things really throw a wrench into things. I've been on the FCO-MUC night train, and it's not one of my favorites... Italian night train service is far below that of the Austrian or German train systems.

Here are all of the the reservation numbers for US listed on USAirways.com under contact us.

Belgium 07-815-00-26
England 0-845-600-3300
France 0-810-63-22-22
Germany 0-180-300-0609
Italy 84-881-3177
Ireland 1890-925065
Netherlands 020-201-3550
Spain 901-11-70-73

It's important to remember that those offices are usually contract offices. They're not usually 24hr service. At least not in the UK, Germany, or Italy which I know for a fact having tried to reach them at odd hours.

As well, their ability to help you is really somewhat limited, changing a ticket challenged the Italian office to the point where I almost ended up buying a completely separate ticket on another flight just to be safe, and forget about upgrading. Upgrade lists are totally lost on them.

What you really should do when travelling abroad is to buy an international pre-paid calling card. You can usually find them in airports or online:

http://www.telestial.com/intl_calling_card.php

Telestia Is pretty reliable. You may find better elsewhere, but telestia has been solid for me. Not the cheapest, but very reliable, which is more important to me. (No, I have no affiliation with them)

Anyways, get an international calling card for 50 bucks or so and call back to the states to reservations or whomever. You'll get more satisfaction faster with less hassle.

Your other option is one that most people don't discuss here much, but I'll let you know.. If you buy a Nextel i2000plus phone and use Nextel you can have it turned on via Nextel international. Rates aren't cheap, but it's one phone number wherever you are, which is dang handy. It's a tri-band phone and works all over everywhere (except some parts of asia). I've used it downrange in places like Macedonia, Kosovo and Bosnia as well as the UK, Germany and Italy.

The other Option is to get a contract with T-mobile and get a GSM phone. All you have to do is have them turn on international roaming before you head out and you're covered all over europe etc. The GSM phone I personally reccommend is the Ericsson/Sony T39m.

http://www.sonyericsson.com/T39/

Lots of nice features, tiny and low profile, bluetooth, GPRS, and not a lot of silly games and other useless features you'll probably never use. I stumbled over this while needing a phone about 18 months ago in europe (Italy) and it's become my personal favorite of any anywhere.. good talk time, great standby time, tiny, and just an overall winner. Unless you somehow NEED a color TV/nintendo/video recorder/mp3 player/dvd recorder built into your phone... in which case I can't help you. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Reviews here:
http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/electronics/mobile_phones/ericsson_t39m/

You can buy an unlocked phone in the US for about 250 bucks, which is a real bargain. And yes, it works fine on the T-Mobile system here.. for short trips I keep my US sim card in and have T-mobile turn on international roaming.. when I go to Italy on longer trips I pop my Telecom Italia sim card in and voila.. I'm now using their system.

BTW, T-mobile is owned by duetsch telekom, so service in europe really is flawless.

Regards,
-Bouncer-

BTW.. why didn't you fly direct out of Rome? US Airways flies both PHL and Charlotte to FCO.

Regards,
-Bouncer-

Sorry, US does NOT fly CLT-FCO

Hmm.. maybe I was thinking FCO LGA CLT http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Still.. since he was trying to go to PHL and they do fly FCO PHL I wonder why he didn't take that route.. oh well.

Regards,
-Bouncer-

Recently, CP's were given a toll free pan European number. As mentioned, you can always buy a phone card in Europe, usually at any news kiosk. The minimum one is normally less than 10 bucks, and generally they will allow you to complete an 800 call back in the US, giving warning before the connection is complete, that although it's a free call Stateside, you will be charged. As well, any US domestic cellphone provider using GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile, Cingular)has models with the additional frequencies used in Europe. If you are a customer of one of those, just be sure you have a model which is multiband, and that you have enabled the use of it prior to going. Regardless of phone capability, it won't work unless you have made arrangements to add international capability to your account, which turns out to be more of a credit issue than technical.

"AT&T Direct" will aslo let you call an 800 number in the states and charge it to any credit card. Little cards listing the local numbers for AT&T Direct are attached to every English language newspaper in Europe.

Just stay in europe. It sounds like less hassle.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">As well, any US domestic cellphone provider using GSM (AT&T, T-Mobile, Cingular)has models with the additional frequencies used in Europe. If you are a customer of one of those, just be sure you have a model which is multiband, and that you have enabled the use of it prior to going.[/B]</font>

However, whether you can make a call to an 800 number depends on the local (i.e., European)service provider. I've also had the need to call US in the U.S. from Europe (most recently from Rome), and the Italian service provider (sorry, I don't remember which one) would no put through a call to an 800 number.

Since that time I've talked with both the CP people and the international reservations and asked whether there were any non-800 numbers to contact them. Definitely international reservations and (I think) CP told me that non-800 numbers had existed in the past but had been discontinued some time back.

I couldn't get a seat on the Rome flights, anytime near my desired dates. MUC was the closest to Rome that I could get.

My seatmate on the way over to MUC works for US; he indicated that they run those flights less than full to take advantage of (more lucrative) freight potential.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by rrz518:
... he indicated that they run those flights less than full to take advantage of (more lucrative) freight potential.</font>


Never underestimate the lucrative freight business. I was in TPE a few weeks ago and holding a full-C fare ticket on TG (Thai) to go from TPE to HKG. They have one morning and one evening flight. Neither fit our travel plans so we checked the CX schedule and found they run widebodies almost every 90 minutes from TPE to HKG. We had our tickets endorsed over and flew CX on a 747-400. All the business class passengers fit upstairs in the bubble of the 744. NO ONE was in the downstairs section. Economy had probably 85 passengers. FC was empty and not attainable even when on a full C ticket and the offer to pay for the upgrade. Why fly the frequencies even at wide-body payscales and full service? CARGO! US does well on several of it's trans-Atlantic flights solely because of cargo... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/thumbsup.gif

When I was in Rome in June I had an impossible time contacting US. The toll free CP number wasn't usable with or without the calling card. I finally had to have the hotel call a local office to get the long distance CP number and connect for me. The number on the ticket jacket, at least for me, did not connect.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dingo:
When I was in Rome in June I had an impossible time contacting US. The toll free CP number wasn't usable with or without the calling card. I finally had to have the hotel call a local office to get the long distance CP number and connect for me. The number on the ticket jacket, at least for me, did not connect.</font>

Yes, that was EXACTLY my experience as well. I had a domestic phone card, as well as an international one, but neither would get through to that number.

However, due to the hour, I didn't have a hotel to help me out...thank GOD for the Germania ad that I saw just a few days prior.

Some of the older ticket jackets have the old phone number for US Airways in Italy. It was changed from a 0800 to a 8488 number. The old number was completely toll-free while the new one has a small charge (I believe it's charged the same rate as a local phone call).

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Bouncer:
It's important to remember that those offices are usually contract offices. They're not usually 24hr service. At least not in the UK, Germany, or Italy which I know for a fact having tried to reach them at odd hours.</font>

Actually, I think that all calls to US Airways from throughout Europe are routed to US Airways's call center in Liverpool, England. The center is staffed only by US Airways employees.

Also, I can highly recommend T-Mobile's international service. I have traveled several times with it, and have been able to both make and receive calls to and from the US and within Europe. For most of Europe, it is $0.99 per minute, which while not the cheapest, the convenience makes it worth it if you are only making occasional, short calls. And it definately comes in handy when you are in a pinch, as you were.

------------------
No thanks, I'm just lurking. Call me the Lurker!

"Actually, I think that all calls to US Airways from throughout Europe are routed to US Airways's call center in Liverpool, England. The center is staffed only by US Airways employees."

That may be true now. I'm flat not sure since it's been months since I did any international travel. When I did it was NOT true, unless they had Italian and German people working in Liverpool answering the phones. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

More to the point, I really do not think they were US employees. They couldn't access parts of the reservation system for one thing. I remember that specifically because I ended up having to call back to the states to get a specific ticket change made.

I don't work for US Airways, all I can tell you is based on my experiences. They mayve changed centers in the last year and stopped contracting out. Dunno. I'd still prefer to call back to the US.

Regards,
-Bouncer-

Does anyone have experience/advice regarding cellphone rental (T-mobile or others) for short trips in Italy? Thanks.

As someone said earlier, T-Mobile has pretty good US coverage and is the price leader in many markets. To use in Europe, all you need is a tri-mode US phone and to make one easy change to your settings.

If you are not traveling soon, you may want to wait a couple of months to see what shakes out of the portability changes that begin next week.