langbr01

I am considering booking a a round trip AZ (Alitalia) flights and have obvious concerns over the bankruptcy. If I have the tickets issued by Delta (006 ticket stock) that are AZ marketed/operated flights, am I protected if they cease operations? Would Delta be legally responsible for accommodating me on an alternate flight? I can't remember the nuances of this situation.

jamiestr

Yes, Delta would protect you on a different route or refund.

langbr01

At no additional cost? Are alternate routes limited to Delta/Skyteam? And to be clear there is a legal obligation, not just goodwill..

MSPeconomist

Would this be an award ticket of pay with miles? That could make a difference.

xliioper

I can't see how they would be obligated to put you on a carrier of your choosing. This would almost certainly be covered under Rule 80 of the international CoC, and as far as DL is concerned it's just a flight cancellation/schedule change and you can either take their offered re-routes or a refund.

hansyuwiwb

You are legally due a refund as until you have flown Delta can't book the revenue and they owe the money back to you if they cannot fly you. Delta will do this also because they won't pay AZ until you have flown so if AZ ceased to operate there's no cost to DL in providing you with a refund. If you ticketed with AZ you'd be on the list of creditors for liquidation proceedings but the chance of getting any money back in that case is pretty slim.

Alternative routing is not a legal right but most likely they will do it so long as they have their/AF/KL metal to the destination you need.

Often1

First, if you pay with a CC issued by a US bank, you will receive an immediate refund if the first segment is within 60 days of purchase, as a matter of law. Most issuers do more than 60 days, but are not required to.

Second, while DL is only obligated to refund or reroute as it chooses, it almost certainly has contingency plans for an AZ insolvency which involves a shut down. Those will likely involve rerouting on other carriers with which DL interlines. Awards are a different story. DL will almost certainly either refund or offer a ST reroute. For many routes, there simply won't be availability and therefore what is on offer might not be to your original destination.

Best answer at this point is that you should avoid involving yourself with a close-to-insolvent carrier in any way, shape or form. At best, you spend a ton of time and come out of it maybe OK. At worst, you are severely disappointed and may even lose out on things. Just ask people who gamed AB too late.

langbr01

Thanks everyone. This is for a revenue routing with an outbound that would be close in (January) but a return that would be months out. All sage advice but I have some comfort ticketing with delta knowing that an alternate routing would be offered (subject to availability) or worst case a refund. As the return would be greater than 60 days out that was my pause with the credit card route.

3Cforme

If it's a destination served by another SkyTeam (better yet, one of the joint venture) carriers, why are you even considering Alitalia for non-immediate travel? Just book DL/AF/KL and don't worry about the timing of AZ's flight reduction/implosion.

HornsKeith

Has something new happened with AZ recently besides the bankruptcy prospects from a few months ago? I took a whole bunch of AZ flights in the last week and had not a single issue. They were even all on-time or early.

Keith

Often1

Well - That would be because AZ is not bankrupt/insolvent. It is at significant risk of that happening. While a carrier doing poorly may trim back here and there, on-time performance is not a good indicator of financial health.

The concern here is that if AZ does become insolvent and ceases operations, that may adversely affect thousands of passengers.

Unless AZ is the sole option, fly another ST carrier or don't fly ST. You are inviting at least a hassle and possibly a real problem.

langbr01

AZ has better availability, with better routing, at a lower cost on more dates. If there is little/no chance of things going sideways it seems like a safe bet to me. Unlike many others my experience on AZ has been very pleasant. I want to make sure I'm going in eyes wide open as they are in bankruptcy and both Ethiad and the Italian government aren't particularly interested in bailing them out.

ND76

Three weeks ago, Mrs. ND76 was on AZ FCO-AMS (where she connected with KL to fly their new 787 to IAD) and reported that she had a good experience with AZ, both at check-in at FCO T1, and on the flight.

If you buy the ticket through Delta, and the flight goes pear shaped, Delta will give you a reroute or a refund.

aquamarinesteph

I flew with Alitalia a couple of weeks ago. (Internal flight, Catania to Rome) It was a great experience, but I felt confident since I'd booked it through Delta that at least I'd get my money back if something fell through on their end...