Alitalia customer care

There has been a lot of talk lately about Alitalia's financial situation and how keen the Italian government is to pass on the ailing airline to an interested buyer. This has so far proved futile to the extent that an airline executive has gone on record saying that if it were offered to his company free of charge he would still decline the offer, let alone enter a bid to buy it.

If Alitalia wants to improve its image and perhaps start on the road to recovery, it must, first and foremost, arrange for its personnel to undergo a thorough course in "customer care" relations.

The unbelievable situation I encountered last week while travelling (albeit having no other choice) with Alitalia says it all. We were a group of 10 travelling from Krakow in Poland to Milan, to connect with flight AZ 884 to Malta. As we were somewhat apprehensive as to whether we would indeed arrive on time for this connection, we were assured there were no delays and furthermore, notification would be given to Milan for the flight to await our arrival, especially since boarding tickets for the Milan/Malta sector, had already been issued to us.

We boarded an unbelievably small plane at Krakow at the appointed time. Notwithstanding, we had a 45-minute wait inside this miniscule aircraft, without any notification whatsoever being given as to the reason behind this.

On arrival in Milan we raced (literally) to the boarding gate shown on the boarding pass, to be told that the Milan/Malta flight was already airborne. We were unceremoniously told to change our boarding passes for the next day's flight. To add insult to injury, throughout this whole sorry state of affairs, no apology whatsoever was forthcoming from any of the airline's personnel. To make matters worse, if anything we only encountered stone silence and absolute unsympathetic behaviour. At this stage it should be mentioned that out of our group four had to return because of a family wedding, while one needed to be in Malta as urgently as possible as her daughter had just been hospitalised in a serious condition.

The only comments forthcoming were that there was nothing to worry about, as a one night's hotel accommodation including meals will be provided for us together with transport. As if all this was not enough, we had to make continual enquiries as to how we were supposed to go about to obtain this promised assistance, but were continually referred from one desk to another.

The meal provided at the designated hotel was a meal in name only. When we complained that there was no choice whatsoever and that the portions handed out were out of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist novel, we were flatly informed by the waiting staff that the arrangement the hotel had with Alitalia in situations similar to ours, was to provide the type of meal being served. If any of us wanted something more palatable and fulfilling we had to order from the à la carte menu and pay for it.

The general impression gained throughout this whole sorry state of affairs was that we were being regarded as a great inconvenience to both the airline staff and the hotel.

At the time of writing this letter, we are still waiting for some form of compensation from Alitalia. If this is too much to ask or hope for, at least an apology would still not be amiss.

I am positive that experiences, similar to ours, by who knows how many other passengers on Alitalia's routes, will definitely not do much to cure the airline's ailments.