I traveled with my kids from Boston to Cairo, Egypt, on Alitalia airlines for two weeks during the Christmas holidays. In Cairo airport, we went to pick up our five bags from the belt but unfortunately after waiting for more than an hour, we found that none of our five bags arrived. Many other families were unfortunate as well. We had to spend two more hours in Cairo airport to file a claim for the lost bags.
The next day we got a call from a taxi driver saying that our bags arrived and he will be delivering the bags to us. Unfortunately only four out of the five bags were delivered. This is when my nightmares began. The lost bag had our camcorder, family video recordings, kids’ clothing and many gifts. I kept trying to call Alitalia’s customer service that’s located in Cairo airport for many hours everyday to get an update but the phones were never answered. The only way I was able to reach them is to drive to the airport to ask them in their offices. I almost wasted my vacation trying to get someone to answer the phone.
Two days before returning to Boston, I spent four hours documenting every detail about the lost bag, its contents, the purchase date, the value, etc. I tried to fax it using the fax number I was given in my claim forms but it never worked. After researching the internet I found some fax number that I was successfully able to use.
I was sure I’d be able to talk to the customer service once I got back to Boston since I thought Alitalia should be required to follow higher standards in US than Egypt but I was mistaken. I kept trying to call their office in NY but it was no different than the situation in Egypt. Again I kept searching for another way to contact them and I was able to find an email address on the web. I sent them an email asking them for an update; they replied they will continue to search for my bag and that my bag is not considered lost until after one hundred days from the travel date.
Since I bought travel insurance for this trip, the insurance company asked me to get a report from Alitalia that I have not received my bag yet. I asked Alitalia to send me this report but they never replied me.
Now it’s almost three months since we lost this bag and we didn’t get reimbursed by the airlines for any of the emergency purchases we did in Cairo. Also why should we wait for more than 100 days to get reimbursed for the lost bag?! Why doesn’t Alitalia send me the report I need so that I can send it to my insurance company and get some reimbursement?! The big question is why are they allowed to operate in US with their non-existent customer service and merciless treatment for the travelers?!
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