[Jose.Romero]

On February 21st, 2008 my wife and I took flight on a trip of a lifetime to visit Egypt, Jordan, and Israel. This was my first experience with Alitalia Airlines and it began with Flight AZ637/AZ882. The flight was from Miami connecting in Milan and finally arriving at our destination in Cairo. Upon arrival to the airport I discovered my luggage had not made it to Cairo. Immediately I reported the incident to the Alitalia baggage service where they gave me an Alitalia Baggage Assistance envelope/document holder. There were no documents in this envelope with instructions on what I could do. Just the document holder with a File Number (AHLCAJAZ44519) written on it and a phone number where I could call for information.

I explained to the baggage service it was imperative for me to locate and get my baggage as soon as possible because in it was a very important medical device to treat my sleep apnea and that without it I would not be able to sleep at night and could possibly loose my life at worst.
On February 22nd in the evening I still had not heard from anybody concerning my baggage and it’s whereabouts. Not even a courtesy call to say Alitalia was tracking the bag. I decided to call the number given to me for information but no one ever answered. I got on the Internet on the hotel where I was staying to get a number in Miami. I called Miami and still no one answered the phone. I spoke about the situation to my tour operator and they took the information and repeatedly called until they finally got word that Alitalia was looking for the bag but had no information.

On February 23rd noon time I decided to leave my vacation/tour to head to the Cairo airport Alitalia Baggage service counter. I could not take it anymore since I had not slept in 3 days because of my sleep apnea, I needed my baggage and my medical device. The agent at the counter had informed me that they were still tracking the bag. I could not believe that 3 days later Alitalia still did not know where my baggage was. I had been wearing the same clothing for 3 days so I asked if there was any assistance to purchase clothing. The agent indicated I must show my passport to receive the assistance. Thank goodness I had given my tour operator a copy of my passport which had already been faxed to the agency. I proceeded to remind the agent that she had a copy of my passport. She then proceeded to say they did not have the correct change to give me the $50 assistance. My tour operator had to provide change to the agent so she could in turn give me the $50 assistance for clothing and toiletries. There was obviously no desire on her part to make things better, her mindset was on obstacles and not solutions.

It was not until February 25th, five days from the original flight that I received my baggage. Upon receiving it I discovered that my bag was mistagged with that of passenger Maor Benharoush on flight AZ805/AZ362 to Marseille.

After our vacation out of Israel on our return flight with Alitalia on March 4th, 2008 we arrived at the airport at 3:00 AM to catch our flight. Security screeing was pretty quick but then we stood at the Alitalia counter in line with others for an hour and a half. It was so unbearable several of us had to sit down on the floor of the airport while the ticketing agents spent approximately 15-20 minutes on average with each customer. It was truly torture in the
I have over 450,000 flight miles and have never experience such bad service. We tried our best to not allow this damage our vacation experience but it sure made it difficult. I want to believe this is not the usual service for Alitalia and would appeciate an opportunity to form a new opinion of your airline. My wife and I plan to vacation in Italy in the future and we would appreciate a flight voucher or discount voucher on behalf of your airline.