January 1, 2010
I had a wonderful trip planned with my 17 year old daughter. My father became ill a week or so before we were scheduled to leave, trip and I flew to Florida to be with him at the hospital. I spent a few days there, and he seemed to be getting well. He really wanted us to go on this trip. I returned to New York and the next day, December 17th we left. We spent a few days in Paris, then flew to Tunis on December 22nd, and drove to Djerba., Tunisia. While on vacation in Djerba, on December 23rd, I received a call that my father had passed away. I needed to get to Florida immediately. I cannot tell you the pain of being so far and the urge to get to my family as soon as possible.
We flew that evening to Tunis. I had been traveling via Air France and when I called they were not only rude and unsympathetic, but wanted nearly $8,000 per ticket to fly my daughter and myself to Miami (one-way and that trip would have taken two days. They refused to credit any of our remaining tickets, the best they could offer is a new one.
In the middle of the night, I ended up using an Internet booking agency that had us flying from Tunis to Rome to London (via Alitalia), and Dallas to Miami for the price of about $4,700 one way. (Dallas and Miami would be through American Airlines). The only tickets available were Business and First Class, and I had no choice.
When we arrived in Rome our flight to London was delayed. I knew we were going to miss our connecting flights once we got to London. After literally begging and crying many uncaring employees, I finally found someone who would listen and arranged for us to fly direct to Miami the next day. This was only possible because we went to the Business Class Lounge. She asked that we wait a few hours and then retrieve our luggage since it would be removed from the delayed plane to London.
The only bag retrieved was our toiletries. I filed a missing luggage claim in Rome with Alitalia. We slept in Rome in our same clothing, arrived in Miami on Christmas Day, still without our two suitcases. We shopped for clothing to attend my Dad's funeral and to get by for a few days. My daughter's bag arrived at my Dad’s home on December 29th at around midnight.
My luggage is still missing. I have not been able to speak to a customer service representative that has helped in any way. An airport employee has told me that Alitalia is blaming American Airlines, American is faulting Alitalia.
I arrived home in New York today missing my father more than I can express, and missing all of the beautiful clothing for a vacation that really never happened…and very disappointed in Alitalia. I hope that someone, somewhere can help me. Thank you for reading my story
Paula S. Gabelman
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