OK, you know the story. We get to FLR and a shambolic and totally unhelpful ITA experience with the cancelled FLR-FCO flight and shunted onto a bus. One pitstop on the way to review the transport. Get to the Hilton Garden Inn and a soothing wine while informing folks at home we were stuck; at that stage for an unknown duration.
We chilled over dinner at the hotel and then I fired off an email to the TA to say we needed rescuing. A bit of middle-of-our-night our time/first thing business hours in Australia activity ensued and we were re-booked two days later than originally scheduled.
Next day we chilled at the hotel, went over to the terminal to speak with the lovely EK ticketing angel who took on board as best she could our seating dilemma and said to leave it with her, and that she would be checkin supervisor next afternoon. The EK people were just so good.
That evening we went to Fiumicino for a wander about and dinner. It turned out to be very pleasant and relaxing – as did, in fact, the extra time in Italy generally. We really did need to wind down after eight very full day. In some ways, it was a blessing in disguise.
And an absolutely delicious seafood dinner at a small trattoria with a couple of bottles of a lovely crisp, dry white from near Lago di Garda in northern Italy to wash it down. Buonnissimo!
Hey, being stuck at FCO for a couple of unexpected nights isn’t so bad after all…!
Thoughts of what was facing us in the air next day temporarily vanished.
Well sated, we Ubered back to the FCO hotel for a lazy start the next day before our 1520h flight FCO-DXB.
EK checkin opens 4h before departure, so we were at the F desk bright and early to check in and then to the excellent EK FCO lounge for a soothing Veuve sedative and a bite to eat before grim reality was to set in.
And the rest is history…
For the ride down to DXB, we were all together in the middle four seats in the front ‘premium’ section of the A380, but there were feral kids with totally inconsiderate and non-caring parents in front of us, so that was a nightmare.
Then, as related upthread, for the ride down to PER, the blocked aisle seats at 87 and 88 H had vanished for a completely full bird. The best I can say is that we lived to tell the tale…
I had some interesting post-trip interactions with the TA.
From her communications, there seemed to be an expectation that we would claim the additional expenses for the extra two nights at FCO from our travel insurance.
But I pointed out to the TA that we had, not unreasonably in my view, only taken out medical travel insurance. I submitted receipts for accommodation and sustenance. The TA coughed up a round-figure amount that pretty much covered our unexpected costs, ‘as a gesture of goodwill’. Hmmm…
Once that was resolved, I wrote a quite full feedback email to the TA and cc’d it to the Qantas Wine agent at Qantas Loyalty who was the person who phoned me to notify the win. I was at pains to point out that I was not complaining and certainly not ungrateful, but I did want to give honest feedback in an endeavour to be helpful.
I questioned why they would buy discount Y fares, given such a generous budget and that it could turn into a false economy if something went wrong, as it did in our case. As far as I could tell, our return tickets were forfeited because we were deemed no-shows, so they had to buy four new full Y tickets on aircraft that were loaded to the max.
We could see from some EK communications the original cost of each PER-FCO-PER ticket: just under $2200. So, $8.8K total for airfares; let’s say a little over $9K total including the ITA FLR-FCO el-cheapos. Not a big dent in a $47K budget.
Add $4K spending money and probably about $5K accommodation and we are likely still under $20K. Add in the tours and transfers, and my guess is that the original expenditure would not have significantly exceeded about half of the claimed prize value.
It was the penny-pinching on the airfares that surprised me the most. It seemed so totally unnecessary and risked a particularly large extra cost if things went pear-shaped. I simply could not understand the need for it, given the generous budget.
We did not expect 5-star hotels; the 4-star offerings were perfectly reasonable and well-located, and the tours and activities were excellent, so top marks there.
What did I learn out of all this to pass on as advice for when YOU win next year’s trip?:
Watch the TA like a hawk. Double-check
everything.
Despite including all our FF numbers at the time of providing passport details, they were not entered at time of booking (surely a rookie error). I had to go into the system and re-seat us from the EK default scum-level. We all operate under our original names. Despite pointing out which pairs were couples, the names went into the system alphabetically; consequently the apparent order of couples was muddled. OK, not a biggie, but like the FF number omission, illustrative of a lack of attention to detail or rookie action. Spelling mistakes in names occurred in several instances; fortunately not in critical tickets.
The el-cheapo ITA tix, as originally issued, showed no baggage allowance. Again, indicative of lack of attention to detail and poor application of logic, given that flight was part of our overall itinerary on the one PNR in our documentation (despite ITA’s later claims to the contrary). I spotted the omission and had to have the TA correct it. Again, illustrative of an unnecessary penny-pinching mentality overriding practicalities and common sense? C’mon…
A bit of a trap with hotels, at least in Rome and Florence, is the city tax. This is levied per person/per night and apparently can only be paid separately at checkout, at least on the type of vouchers provided to us. These surcharges totalled $400 – in other words 10% of the ‘pleasure’ spending money. I suggested that they consider some way of provisioning for that cost separately from the spending money.
I strongly advised against using internal flights in Italy. Train travel would be a better option in my view.
I think the TA was not sorry to see the end of us, while there has not been a peep out of Qantas Loyalty…
And so ends a great trip!
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