John writes:
Alitalia Airlines
Customer Relations
350 Fifth Avenue
Suite 3700
New York, NY 10118To Whom It May Concern:
On October 21, 2007 I attempted to check in on time for an Alitalia flight from Tehran, Iran to Milan, Italy for which I was ticketed and had confirmed my reservation the day previous. The check-in agent informed me there was a problem with my ticket and that I would not be allowed to travel. I found this horrifying, as my Iranian visa was expiring and any delay could cause serious problems with Iranian immigration and could bar me from leaving the country.
Through no fault of my own, your mistake forced me to purchase a full-fare ticket on the spot for US$830 to board the flight and leave Iran while my visa was still in effect. In my fax and the attached copy I explain the details of this and attach a handwritten letter from the check-in agent describing the problem. I, in effect, was caused by your mistake to purchase the same seat twice, and for the inflated walk-up fare.
Your airline’s actions on October 21 nearly left me stranded in a hostile country with no United States embassy to turn to for help. Had I been unable to purchase that second ticket for US$830, I might still be helpless in Iran struggling to deal with an expired visa at the mercy of government officials. This is a nearly unforgivable way to treat guests on your airline.
On October 25, 2007 I spoke with Teresa in your New York customer service office. She informed my that my initial fax to that office had been lost and advised me to send the correspondence to her personal attention. Upon retransmittal of that fax, Teresa told me any refund from Alitalia would take 100 days and that the refund would likely be only for the less expensive unused ticket for which I was denied travel. The US$830 ticket I was forced to purchase because of Alitalia’s mistake would probably not be refunded, Teresa told me.
I hope you understand why this outcome is unacceptable. Your mistake forced me to purchase a second ticket for US$830 on a flight I had already paid for, was ticketed for and for which I held a confirmed reservation. The only acceptable action on the part of your company is to refund to me, in the form of check or credit card return, the US$830 cost of the ticket I was unnecessarily forced to purchase in Tehran.
Further, the projected delay of 100 days to resolve this matter is unnecessary, insulting and ridiculous. I am shocked and angered by your company’s mistake and its response to this situation thus far. As such I find it necessary immediately to involve other parties in its resolution.
I have forwarded copies of this correspondence to the Maryland Attorney General’s Office Division of Consumer Protection, as well as to the investigative reporting unit at WBAL Television in Baltimore.
I hope you will review the enclosed materials immediately and move expeditiously to bring this matter to its only fair resolution: a refund to me, in the form of check or credit card return, the US$830 I was forced by your mistake to spend on a second ticket from Tehran to Iran on October 21, 2007.
Please contact me at any time to discuss this matter further, by telephone at [redacted] or by email at [redacted]
Respectfully,
John
Know what it’s called when you tell people you’re going to give them something in exchange for their money, and then you don’t? Stealing. It is called stealing.
Why wait 100 days for them to maybe feel like not being criminals? Let’s say it all together now….charrrrrgggeeebackkkkk. Call up your credit card company and tell them your story and get your money back. That’ll get Alitalia’s attention better than any letter sent to a fax machine that feeds directly into the waste bin.
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The reason for the 100 days is probably to ensure there will not be a chargeback. The OP has 90 days to file, if he used a credit card. I’d definitely do that, and if that doesn’t work, sue the New York office in small claims. I would be interested to find out what the issue was. Hopefully there will be a follow up to this article.
@speedwell: I think you just won the Asshole of the Day Award. Good job.
I’d like to know what their reason was for stranding him there.
@macinjosh:
@STrRedWolf: Seriously.
Entry by ground: contracted killers running rampant in neighboring occupied territories
Entry by air or sea: incompetent Navy
Safest way is to enlist and wait for Operation Iranian Freedom.
You should also copy the DOT and apprise them of this situation. Airlines do not want the DOT involved…ever…
His fault for going to a backward stone age country run by a mad man. I do not care if it was for business or anything. Supporting a terrorist regime with your dollars you spent while there is treason in my book.
Should plan to leave a country a few days before your visa expires.
Iran should be turned into a parking lot for American oil rigs. Miserable country.
I certainly agree that the consumer deserves to be refunded the amount of his cheaper ticket in a more timely fashion, but he did voluntarily choose to buy a more expensive replacement rather than wait for a later flight, and that fact that his visa was about to run out and that he chose to travel in a country with no US embassy is a situation of his own making and hardly Alitalia’s responsibility. Consumerist can be entertaining and useful, but I am getting rather sick of self-important people publishing their overblown complaint letters. We all have to deal with these sorts of issues from time to time, but they aren’t life threatening, just annoying, and there’s no reason to act so self-righteously aggrieved when you run into a rather ordinary consumer problem.
@Beerad:
Unfortunately, ‘friendly disagreements’ about airline policies can’t and shouldn’t be the norm when a western airline extorts money from a passenger who may be jailed, tortured, or killed if they are not out of the country on their pre-arranged flight.
We’re not talking about missing a flight out of Hawaii and being forced to drink a few more mohitos on the beach.
@jwissick:
Please return to whatever conservative hell from whence you were spawned. Insulting the country is what turned them against us six years ago. Prior to that, they were beginning to westernize and democratize. If they hadn’t been goaded back into anti-american sentiment, perhaps the OP wouldn’t have been as fearful.
You people are just like the man who kicks a dog and screams about how violent it is when it bites.
@RvLeshrac: I think you’ve misconstrued my posts — I was responding to commentor speedball’s unnecessary and irrelevant rude comments about another commentor’s intelligence, not Alitalia’s actions. I was not referring to a “friendly disagreement” between the OP and Alitalia. Nobody was going to be jailed, tortured, or killed because someone posted an opinion on Consumerist that someone else disagreed with.
As several others have noted, there’s not really enough detail here to know who’s in the right. Vague “problems with your ticket” may or may not equal extortion.
@Beerad: Speedball, speedwell, close enough.
Your flight from Tehran to Iran? Huh?
Good letter otherwise though.
@jwissick: the IRS would have a real problem with you not supporting one, wouldn’t they?
If the airline could get him on a flight with a new full fare ticket, they could have moved him to that very flight without it. If he confirmed his reservation, it’s basically their fault.
Overbooking may work, but there is certainly historical data (well, OK, that’s redundant in this case) available that would allow overbooking with a minimum of stranded people, and an efficient means of moving them between flights that do fill and that don’t.
Such a system would probably not maximize profits, and many people are more or less trapped by the time overbooking causes a problem.
Dear John,
Don’t go to Iran. Just a thought.
XoX,
Nick
@RvLeshrac:
AMEN! I’m so sick of douchetastic commenters sitting in front of bad news. Get your news from more than one site and your education from somewhere NOT Oral Roberts U!
Ug.