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Hi All,
This has just happened today.
Two weeks ago my wife booked a return flight from Italy to the UK to return this afternoon.
In the end she decided to accept a lift to the UK with some friends and did not use the outbound flight from Italy.
This morning she arrived at Heathrow to use the booked and paid for return half of her ticket, but was told that as she had not used the outbound half that the ticket had been cancelled.
The ground staff said that this was the policy and refered her to the terms and conditions.
The ground staff at Heathrow are all Italian and so English is not their first language. My wife read their terms and conditions which are obviously written in English and obviously written by someone who is English and understands English legalese.
The terms and conditions did not state as the ground staff suggested that she would lose her return half of the ticket, in fact it suggested nothing even close to what she was being told.
She tried to explain to them that her interpretation was nothing even close to theirs and that as this was in legalese English she was far better equipped to interpret the meaning than they were.
She was told that she would have to purchase another ticket to get back to Italy at a cost of £700 ONE WAY.
A return ticket would be less than £150, she actually paid only £112 for the original return ticket.
Obviously she had no choice as she was stranded in Heathrow with all the problems with the whole of the UK being snowbound.
I have tried to access the terms and conditions on the Alitalia site, but cannot see how they arrived at the conclusion that they did arrive at.
Any help, advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.
We are very regular clients of Alitalia as we are ex-pats and use them 5 or 6 times a year, they are normally a lot cheaper, more convenient and a thousand times better than the cowboy outfit RYANAIR
Thanks for reading this.
Regards
Gerry
This has just happened today.
Two weeks ago my wife booked a return flight from Italy to the UK to return this afternoon.
In the end she decided to accept a lift to the UK with some friends and did not use the outbound flight from Italy.
This morning she arrived at Heathrow to use the booked and paid for return half of her ticket, but was told that as she had not used the outbound half that the ticket had been cancelled.
The ground staff said that this was the policy and refered her to the terms and conditions.
The ground staff at Heathrow are all Italian and so English is not their first language. My wife read their terms and conditions which are obviously written in English and obviously written by someone who is English and understands English legalese.
The terms and conditions did not state as the ground staff suggested that she would lose her return half of the ticket, in fact it suggested nothing even close to what she was being told.
She tried to explain to them that her interpretation was nothing even close to theirs and that as this was in legalese English she was far better equipped to interpret the meaning than they were.
She was told that she would have to purchase another ticket to get back to Italy at a cost of £700 ONE WAY.
A return ticket would be less than £150, she actually paid only £112 for the original return ticket.
Obviously she had no choice as she was stranded in Heathrow with all the problems with the whole of the UK being snowbound.
I have tried to access the terms and conditions on the Alitalia site, but cannot see how they arrived at the conclusion that they did arrive at.
Any help, advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.
We are very regular clients of Alitalia as we are ex-pats and use them 5 or 6 times a year, they are normally a lot cheaper, more convenient and a thousand times better than the cowboy outfit RYANAIR
Thanks for reading this.
Regards
Gerry
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