Delta to Rome from Miami - a bad idea

Got nothing against Delta. I have flown the airline a few times, without a hitch.

The problem is the flight to Rome, from Miami, is operated by Alitalia.

I remembered reading that Alitalia almost went belly up last year. However, given that American's connections to Italy, from Miami, were kinda weird, we decided to fly Delta - that is, Alitalia.

I knew all along it would be Alitalia equipment and crew. I could not imagine it would be as bad as it turned out to be. The plane, both ways, was and old 767. It was somewhat dirty inside, the seats had uncomfortable cushions, some of the earphone connections did not work. The food ranged from bad to terrible (let me add little), even non alcoholic beverages were served sparingly, onboard service was slow and indifferent. The bathrooms did not feel clean. The overhead luggage compartment was small. In other words, not what you what expect from a world class airline.

The real problem, however, was that on the way to Italy, the flight was almost 6 hours late, because "there was no plane". The very nice ground attendant was very apologetic, checked us in early anywhay for the flight that had been moved to 10 PM from a 4:10 PM departure. Then she gave us a piece of paper, mentioning compensation and $12 meal vouchers.

After perambulating around Miami International for almost six hours, I noticed a lot of people walking around with the same paper in their hands, some gesticulating, many of them going to talk to the Alitalia personnel at the podium. I decided to read, and found it said that flights over 3 hours late entitled travelers to compensation.



I warranted this was worth further probing, for it talked about 600 Euros a pop. Sure enough, the girl at the counter said we were entitled to compensation, and that I should contact Alitalia two days after the flight.

I decided not to bother with this during the trip, and contacted the airline upon returning to the USA. As a response, I got an email from Alitalia that said that the flight was late for "technical reasons", thus, we were not entitled to compensation.

I ask this question, which I believe is reasonable. Why did Alitalia give us the papers to begin with? If their policy is not to give compensation for "technical reasons", and supposedly they knew technical reasons prevented them from boarding us on time that day, why give a piece of paper that told us otherwise? It simply makes no sense.

Honestly, if I were not given the piece of paper, I would have not asked anything. I would have gotten over the fact the flight was late long ago, for the stay in Italy was superb. Because I was given the paper, I asked, and now am an upset customer.

This rubs off on Delta. American carriers now advertise tons of destinations they really do not fly into. For instance, in Miami, American advertises daily non-stop service to Madrid, but service is really provided by Iberia. The so-called code sharing might be a nice marketing exercise that expands your destination coverage without requiring equipment, assets and workers, when it works well. When it does not, it just creates bad will between the travelling public and the airline.

That is why I will think twice before I book another Delta flight ever. It simply rubbed off badly on them.