6 months ago we flew Alitalia from athens to bombay via milan.A designer bag containing among other things my house keys was misplaced/lost/whatever.After landing we realised a lot of other people’s luggage was missing as well.As usual.the long n tedious procedure of filling forms while complaining commenced.We were told told the bags would be traced within 48 hours yada yada yada.Not only is that bag untraced but we have got no intimation from their side ever, inspite of repeated phone calls and/or visits. Later I read in the papers that there is an airline policy that states ppl with missing luggage be paid Rs.4000 on the spot. Why were we not informed of this, may I ask?And I guess we’re supposed to just forget about the luggage, right? Finders, keepers-losers, weepers.That should be their new mantra regarding luggage at alitalia.And yes, the flight attendants are rude, obnoxious and treat us like s**t.The food was strictly o.k. but the portions were too tiny, and I’ m not even a big eater.
Next, an Emirates faux pas unbelievable.Imagine this. you end a lovely holiday at Cairo and wistfully head homewards.You arrive on time to board your cairo-bahrain-bombay flight.At the check in counter you are told your ticket has been cancelled!Your jaw drops to the floor, what when how.how d’this happen? Apparently somebody from emirates called our hotel(Bostan hotel at downtown Cairo)to’confirm’ our tickets & was told to cancel the tickets.We asked who had called and who did he speak to.it sure as hell was’nt us.They had no clue, I explained to him that the person who answered the phone could have been a bellboy, a mad receptionist or the floor cleaner.He totally agreed that it was their fault & proceeded to inform me & my husband that the flight was now full, but we had an option of flying seperate airlines-one in emirates the other in some other carrier.I lost it then, and somehow we managed to get two tickets(in the same flight). But I’ll never forget that experience .it was by far the worst of my life.
P.S. On the 25th of october we got reimbursed to the tune of$200, the loss was definitely higher but at least we recovered a liddle.