On the 24th December 2010 I took Alitalia flight AZ 111 from Amsterdam to Rome, and from there I took Alitalia flight AZ 894 from Rome to Cairo. I had arranged to have my luggage sent directly from Amsterdam to Cairo on the same flights.

Alas, the baggage did not appear when I arrived. I was not the only one who experienced this problem. More than fifty people had also failed to obtain their luggage. Alitalia had two employees to deal with this problem. It took several hours until everybody's case had been treated. Many passengers became impatient as one had to push one's way and no attempt was made to form queues. It was especially passengers who were accustomed to queuing in Anglo-Saxon countries and not accustomed to Egyptian conditions who were most vocal in their criticism over the conditions. My case was treated by a young lady. I gave her information which included my telephone number and the name of my hotel and its telephone number.

The next day I tried to call Alitalia. I finally got across. But they could not help, as I had to provide a reference number, and there was none in the Property Irregularity Report which the lady from Alitalia had given me. All this calling to Italy resulted in my eventually exceeding my credit limit with my mobile telephone provider. And alas it was for nothing. All this calling Alitalia ultimately resulted in an expense of €101.16. In addition, I had expenses for taking a taxi to and from the airport. As I do not have any receipt for that I have not submitted any claim for this expense.

That night I went to the airport to contact Alitalia and inquire about my luggage. I found the lady who had dealt with my case. She told me that she was very busy but would deal with me in half an hour. After that she went back to the counter where she had dealt with my case. I could see her there. After an hour and a quarter she ran away and out of my sight. At first I was happy, as I figured that she was hurrying up to help recover my suitcase. But as she did not show up within an hour I figured that she had simply given me the slip, her promise previously notwithstanding.

 At the Alitalia office I got to know that my suitcase had arrived the previous afternoon at 4 o'clock in the flight from Milan Malpensa. Although I had flown via Rome my suitcase had flown via Malpensa and therefore arrived more than fourteen hours later. Even though they had my telephone number and that of my hotel they did not contact me, much less send the suitcase to the hotel. It took several hours, but finally my suitcase arrived. I went back to my hotel at 6 o'clock in the morning, without having slept all night, as I had been at the airport. What a way to spend Christmas!

It can happen that luggage is accidentally sent with other flights and not the ones taken by the passenger and therefore arrives later. What causes my indignation is the failure of Alitalia to do anything to remedy the situation. They did not contact me to tell me that my suitcase had arrived. To add insult to injury their representative had promised to attend to my case only to run away and give me the slip.

I initially sent a claim to Alitalia Sept in rue D’Annam in Paris. Despite numerous letters to this company they only offered €50 as compensation for all this. That I consider derisory when considering what I had been through and the attitude of Alitalia staffers.

Thereupon I contacted the European Consumer Centre (ECC). They got in touch with Alitalia and submitted a claim on my behalf. After about a year I was told that Alitalia was willing to pay me €100. I rejected this as I could document even higher expenses, and I felt entitled to extra for all the trouble I had to go through, not to mention the undocumented expenses which I had to pay.

The reply of Alitalia was to give me a voucher for €150. I understand that they would not give me a cent but instead reduce the price of any future purchase of an Alitalia ticket by this amount. I instantly rejected this offer, as I had no intention of ever flying with Alitalia again, as a result of the experiences which I have described above.

Thereupon Alitalia’s Dott. Davide Dominici offered me €125 in cash to be transferred to my account. As I realised that dealing with this company was all but futile I accepted this offer. I was asked to fill in a form in which the IBAN of my bank account was included, which I did. 

However, this information was not sufficient for this company. I was told that I had to forward the address of my bank. (Apparently Alitalia has never heard of SEPA, the Single European Payments Area.) I not only informed them about the address of my bank, I even forwarded the links to the following Websites:

• <http://www.ibancalculator.com/>
• <http://www.swift.com/bsl/facelets/bicsearch.faces>
• <http://www.swift.com/bsl/facelets/bicsearch.faces;jsessionid=Am6hqiYfcClWNPQi5gpHkgRwAyjQdOWbYICBGJ7o>

Imagine: I could find the address of my bank on the basis of the IBAN from these Websites yet Alitalia, with all its resources, could not!