Please, everyone, stay on topic.........there are other sections and forums altogether for randomly bashing on people, countries, and carriers. And before starting to sound like an AZ defender, let me state i am Italian and fully agree on any and all criticism against our customer service level, we just don't possess that concept in the country imho.

That said, i just wanted to state that in this specific case Alitalia did not break any law (at least judging from what we know from the post) and was not forced to upgrade the pax. I fully agree they should have, but they didn't have to. Imho the pax shouldn't have bought the other ticket, as this notoriously complicates a lot any subsequent refund process and paperwork; i still believe he should try to get that money refunded, but he should not, not, not, under any circumstance, dispute the charge with the CC.

That will only backfire on him, since the charge itself will be perfectly legit and AZ will have an easy time proving that. So don't chargeback, just look for a refund. I'd say you have roughly a 25%/30% chance of getting back at least the fare difference.

Finally, to clear the upgrade issue...no, they didn't have to upgrade the pax. What they have to do, is put the pax on the first Y seat available. Upgrading the pax is something they can do (and common courtesy says they should), but are in no way obliged to. And when the pax bought a J ticket, he signed a completely different contract, which is in no way tied to the previous one. (Hence the mistake, and why i don't think he should've done that). The AZ agent was wrong in suggesting that as an "alternative option", as the two things are completely different and separate issues. The agent should've said something along the lines of "If you really have to get there tonight, buy a J ticket for that other plane, and we'll sort the refund for this one later".

If you rent a city car and when you show up the car itself isn't there, and there are no others available, you can expect a hell of a refund, and damages in a lot of countries. What you can't do, is go out, rent a Ferrari or a helicopter because "you have to get there", and expect money expenditures and refunds to even out.