FCO, anyone?? I'm venting -- apologies in advance

[italian excursion]

My goodness, that is the most unusual story I've heard yet, regarding United or any other airline. I am so sorry you had such a horrible experience. I stopped flying United about 15 years ago as the crew always seemed to unhappy and the service was negligible. I try to fly only on European airlines but sometimes have to take a US airline to the East Coast before connecting to an overseas flight. I like Alaska; Delta is not 100% good but better than United, by far.

At any rate, don't give up! Try for another airline, preferably European which may mean an extra stop, but so worth it. Lufthansa is consistently reliable for me, BA is OK though I prefer not to have a stopover in GB. KLM can be good, too.

Best of luck,
Cheryl
www.italianexcursion.com

 

[BC Brenda]

I ended up canceling my trip to Italy with United because they kept changing the aircraft and our seats. I initially purchased Premium Plus seats. Two days after purchasing I received a notice from United that aircraft had changed and those seats were no longer available. I would have to wait until after travel to receive a refund. I wrote United who stated they would give me a refund for the difference. Then a week later they changed the aircraft back to the original model. This time they did not notify me. I just happened to check. But they had stated the schedule had changed (by 5 minutes) but failed to state that the model plane changed back to what it originally was. I wouldn't be able to see what seats we were in until I accepted the change. I can't chance my partner who is 6'5" being stuck in a middle seat on a 3-4-3 configured plane. I wrote United stating this was a scam changing our seats and aircraft twice in two weeks and that I either want my original seats back at the original price or a full refund. They wrote back stating I needed to pay an $500 above what I initially paid for the Premium Plus seats. I persisted stating I wouldn't accept the change until I get those seats back or get a full refund. They ended up giving me a full refund. Hence, my trip to Italy is cancelled. I have been following United on Twitter and apparently they have been known to downgrade passengers who have purchased business class or premium plus seats. I don't know if other airlines do this regularly as I don't fly very often.

We had something similar with our May flight to England and Netherlands. We originally booked Premium Economy with KLM. Then made all our hotels/train reservations. KLM notified us that they had changed the plane - no premium economy available - and had rebooked us into economy. BUT no refund as current prices had risen so economy was now the same as prior Premium Economy.

Obviously this was not satisfactory but no recourse. So we cancelled and rebooked with Westjet. However, since prices had risen, we settled for economy with extra legroom. We then had to change most of our hotel reservations and pay charges for changing the train trips.

Now Westjet has informed us that part of our trip has changed and instead of flying thru Vancouver with 2 hour layovers each way, we were now flying through Calgary with a 7 hour layover on departure and a 10 hour layover on return!!

Since we are paying a fairly substantial sum (at least based on past history/travel) this is not a reasonable itinerary. So we cancelled again.

We now have no tickets and because of spiralling costs, our alternatives appear to be non-refundable economy tickets at a higher price than our initial Premium Economy.

At this point, we are somewhat exhausted without even heading to the airport!! I think we are going to just monitor the situation until after Christmas and then try again, keeping our eyes and ears open for sales....if such things truly exist in today's market.

We want to try to stay with our original dates as changing all the other reservations can get expensive......we shall see. But the airline world has definitely changed and just become much more difficult with all the new classes and different rules for each class.

 

[Pauline]

A follow up from @Alpinista today.

Mea Culpa -- FCO

Old age being what it is, I can't remember where I posted a response saying FCO was still a mess based on our October experience -- can't find it on here, so might have been on a different Italy site. However, will post as an info item that we sailed through check-in (United) and security...

www.sloweurope.com

 

[Mary Hanson]

Just a quick snit and then I'll feel better.

Don't know if we hit a bad travel day/time, but felt exhausted getting to our United flight yesterday. When we went through FCO in September, think we were fifth in line at check-in and just walked through all the stations.

Yesterday, it was shoulder-to-shoulder mob scene. Arrived to a jam-packed terminal 3. United's check-in is all the way to the end of the terminal, so started weaving our way through the crowd until we hit a wall (literally) with an agent directing us out the door, onto the sunny sidewalk, and a decently long walk to the final door where we reentered to the United desks. It was impossible to distinguish between the priority check-in and regular lines (just kind of mingling together). Got that sorted out and had about 20 people in front of us in priority and thanking our lucky stars we were not in the regular line.

Then went all the way back to the other end (from whence we had come) and found that the wall we had hit the first time had an opening that allowed one way foot traffic in the direction we were going. Then got to the security lines and found the same confusion due to the volume of people trying to get into a correct line -- overlaps of people going to check-in desks, to EU passport control, and to non-EU control.

After a lot of people (including us) saying, "Is this the line to.....", we got that done and went fairly quickly through the inspection process. It only took an hour from leaving the airport hotel to being through everything, but it just felt FAR longer (very few people wearing masks, btw).

Once at the lounge, we found a group of people waiting outside the door with one kind person saying, "There's a half an hour wait" -- at which point we started to turn around until a second voice added, "Unless you are flying business class". Our relief at getting in was quickly mitigated when we found that the new Prima Vista lounge is far smaller than the previous lounge, was not all that clean at the tables, and that the only way to get a beverage or food was to stand in a slow-moving line where one attendant took your order and then the same attendant leaving the line to go into the kitchen area when summoned to deliver orders to the tables. I never made it to the front of the line before our flight boarding was called, so no idea how long it would have taken to get something or what the quality would have been.

Once on the flight, there was no entertainment service, so spent 10 hours playing games on my iPhone.

Highlight of the flight was this being served for the afternoon snack. The stewardess said it was a hamburger.

You be the judge.

View attachment 36963

View attachment 36964

Last September 2 things were different. FIRST This time you are now flying high season. There are a couple times in the year airlines discount the heck out of fares because no one flies. The first week AFTER the New Years weekend. Everyone flew for the holidays now zip. 2nd is weeks 1 and 2 in June. School isnt out and people are holding off on vacations. 3rd is right after school starts in September. And finally the first 2 weeks in December. Difference between low and high season.

Second difference was Covid's impact on tourism. Last September there were dang few tourists in Rome. My favorite Hotel ,which last week was $200 a night. Last Sept. It was 60€ .
Add in revenge travel? Its a mob scene. Italy requres in person check in. You can do the virtual but you still have to check in physically. At FCO I regularly arrive 3 hours pre flight.

As to your snack Italians don't "do" hamburgers. Even McDonalds is different than USA.

 

[Alpinista]

As to your snack Italians don't "do" hamburgers. Even McDonalds is different than USA.

It was served by an American carrier (United) ;-) Wonder who has the food service contract for these flights?

However, in a monument to blind faith, I had the choice between a pasta dish that looked really horrible (can you really eat pasta or pizza anywhere else again after being in Italy) or another cheeseburger for our snack on Monday's flight. I again chose the cheeseburger and it was actually on a bun and was somewhere in the range of White Castle hamburgers for edibility. No photos this time, but it was a FAR different serving than the one I had last year.

 

[vicogirl51]

As

It was served by an American carrier (United) ;-) Wonder who has the food service contract for these flights?

However, in a monument to blind faith, I had the choice between a pasta dish that looked really horrible (can you really eat pasta or pizza anywhere else again after being in Italy) or another cheeseburger for our snack on Monday's flight. I again chose the cheeseburger and it was actually on a bun and was somewhere in the range of White Castle hamburgers for edibility. No photos this time, but it was a FAR different serving than the one I had last year.

Last September 2 things were different. FIRST This time you are now flying high season. There are a couple times in the year airlines discount the heck out of fares because no one flies. The first week AFTER the New Years weekend. Everyone flew for the holidays now zip. 2nd is weeks 1 and 2 in June. School isnt out and people are holding off on vacations. 3rd is right after school starts in September. And finally the first 2 weeks in December. Difference between low and high season.

Second difference was Covid's impact on tourism. Last September there were dang few tourists in Rome. My favorite Hotel ,which last week was $200 a night. Last Sept. It was 60€ .
Add in revenge travel? Its a mob scene. Italy requres in person check in. You can do the virtual but you still have to check in physically. At FCO I regularly arrive 3 hours pre flight.

As to your snack Italians don't "do" hamburgers. Even McDonalds is different than USA.I

Last September 2 things were different. FIRST This time you are now flying high season. There are a couple times in the year airlines discount the heck out of fares because no one flies. The first week AFTER the New Years weekend. Everyone flew for the holidays now zip. 2nd is weeks 1 and 2 in June. School isnt out and people are holding off on vacations. 3rd is right after school starts in September. And finally the first 2 weeks in December. Difference between low and high season.

Second difference was Covid's impact on tourism. Last September there were dang few tourists in Rome. My favorite Hotel ,which last week was $200 a night. Last Sept. It was 60€ .
Add in revenge travel? Its a mob scene. Italy requres in person check in. You can do the virtual but you still have to check in physically. At FCO I regularly arrive 3 hours pre flight.

As to your snack Italians don't "do" hamburgers. Even McDonalds is different than USA.

As I am 100% Italian (dual citizenship) living 5 -6 months in Tuscany in my family home and the rest home in Florida we’ve encountered the same ridiculously long lines in November as Alpinista did at FCO and it had nothing to do with the time one traveled , the class of service traveled (business class) or Covid. It was due to the construction that was still underway for years and now thankfully has been completed.
As to hamburgers Italians actually do eat hamburgers ….good quality meat burgers… not what McDonald's serves. Hamburgers from Ireland , Scotland or Argentina are in all Super Markets along with appropriate buns! They even eat sliders now!!
Today at quite an upscale restaurant in Lucca for pranzo we noticed hamburger was on the menu for 20 euros.
Perhaps eons ago in my grandparents and parents’ time hamburgers never existed but Italy has progressed and caught up with the rest of the world. Hamburger in Italian btw is “medaglione” which has been on menus at local trattorias over 20yrs ! Sadly my Italian cousins frequent McDonalds that I will say is better than US the one time I tried it.
So…my history lesson on the fact that yes we Italians do eat Hamburgers!! It’s not just pasta anymore lol!