JGfromOC

Need a little help from my fellow FTers.

I am due to fly to FCO from LAX on Friday. I'll be on AZ metal but on a DL ticket. Also have my sister and nephew with me, but they booked separately on AZ paper. I'm concerned because it looks like AZ flight and ground staff are planning a strike on Friday according to the Commissione di Garanzia Sciopero website: http://bit.ly/13yJ2IV

Anyone ever had this happen to them? Curious how this will be handled and if our flight will be cancelled. Both my sister and I contacted AZ and DL respectively to try and get on the Thursday flight from LAX to FCO and get out ahead of the strike, but of course since AZ hasn't said a word about this, neither AZ nor DL will let us change our tickets yet.

Any idea or advice? Much appreciated.

rwoman

For the CDG mess - https://www.delta.com/content/www/en...l-france1.html - DL allowed a refund or one-time change.

They may let you change dates, but DL has not made an official announcement yet.

JGfromOC

Yeah, that is where I am stuck right now. DL can't do anything until AZ makes a move, but God bless Italians, they'll wait until the last possible minute to say anything - IF they say anything. Curious if AZ will work out some way to service their international routes on this.

roknroll

Do you have trip insurance? Might be a good time to buy it if it will cover airline employee strikes. Some of the mid-tier plans will cover up to 150%.

Looked up a quick one and their trip interruption coverage (150% pre-paid trip costs) says:
The downside is that it requires a 24 hour period without being able to fly, which means you'd lose a day of travel and then have to rebook to a likely middle seat.

JGfromOC

Yeah, I thought about that. It is $328 and I'm already on a J ticket through DL. So not sure it makes sense. And to your point, I'd have to lose a day of the trip, which would cause me to incur other costs associated with the trip (such as a non-refundable AZ ticket from FCO-BDS on June 15).

I have a feeling I'm about to learn a very painful and costly lesson.

MSPeconomist

If you have a full J fare, it should be changeable and refundable, so just change to the date and flights you want. You don't need to wait for AZ to declare a strike waiver. But this seems to contradict your statement that the June 15th AZ ticket FCO-BOS (is this the return so soon and not part of a RT?) is nonrefundable (which for exUSA tickets tends to mean changeable with a $250-400 fee).

Would trip insurance reimburse the deposit for the first Italy hotel room night that you wouldn't be able to use or just pay for any additional expenses, such as hotel rooms at other airports?

JGfromOC

The catch is not ditching my sister and nephew who are on AZ Y tickets. To clarify, we're flying from LAX-FCO on June 14 (arriving FCO on June 15). We then added a domestic AZ flight on new PNR's with AZ for June 15 to fly from FCO-BDS. (decided to spend time in Rome on the back-end of the trip, not the front-end.)

Those tickets are non-refundable. Don't know enough about trip insurance to know what they'll cover and especially this close to my departure date (and with a known strike looming). The indication I have from AZ (and DL) today is that they'll protect the LAX-FCO flight and it will operate as scheduled.

roknroll

Those europeans rarely follow through with their strikes though, right?

JGfromOC

^

Wouldn't be an adventure any other way, haha!

JGfromOC

For what it is worth, I called AZ again today and the agent I spoke with assured me that Alitalia will be operating all their flights from the U.S. to Italy as scheduled on Friday.

MSPeconomist

....and you believed them?????

JGfromOC

What choice do I have at this point? AZ hasn't issued any travel advisory so I am stuck until they do. I'm sort of stuck at this point.

And then again, there always is the chance the Italian government steps in at the 11th hour and blocks the strike.

motytrah

Many travel insurance policies have rolling known strike action appendixes or stipulations about purchasing after a strike action is made public. Buyer beware.

JGfromOC

That's what I figured. I think I am out of luck on the travel insurance. Just going to have to roll the dice and see what happens from here.

irfan23

Ugh. Well, fingers crossed on your behalf. Keep us posted.