Wife Denied Boarding Flight by Alitalia

tombz · Non-Elite Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 1

I will try to make this a short presentation. Will be hard but shall try.

I purchased flight tickets online from a US company for my wife who lives in Africa. I am an American living in Belize she is a Sierra Leone national living in Dakar. She is a journalist refugee. She worked for the UN as a journalist and language interpreter in the War Zones of Sierra Leone as well as being the senior journalist for the largest publication there. She left Sierra Leone before the so called peace accord. We have been married over 3 years.

Trying to get my wife in legally to the US has been such a long delay with the Immigration process. The main problem is they want â€œoriginalsâ€ of certain paperwork etc for processing. Well my wife cannot go back to Sierra Leone to casually get her required paperwork. There were two direct attempts on her life, one of her editors murdered another imprisoned and the building torched. Etc and Etc. Get the picture is all I ask of the importance in getting her to Belize.

In order for my wife and I to be together within a reasonable time I had to leave the US and move elsewhere. We chose Belize. She is a commonwealth citizen and needs no visa here. Additionally she has been jailed several times in Dakar due to her refugee status. The sooner the better.

I purchased tickets for my wife from OneTravel.com for Alitalia Airlines flights. The first being from Dakar to Milan, 50 minutes to change planes in Milan then on to Caracas. From there San Jose to Belize on TACA.

We planned this trip very carefully. Italy and Venezuela and the rest of the planned itinerary allow Passenger Airport Transit for Sierra Leone Nationals. We know that African passports are virtually not accepted in France, Spain, Canada, or England. She is not allowed to change planes in most of those countries and the process in others are almost getting to the point of none allowed. Additionally, they will not let my wife change planes in the US because she is married to a US citizen. The US will not allow her in under any type of legal visa before the lawyers and the US get their share from the Citizen spouse for processing paperwork. We booked in essence about the only flights that would allow her to travel.

On Sept 14th my wife arrived at the Dakar Airport 4 hours before flight time to board the plane. She never made it to the ticketing booth, in fact they would not even let her in the building. She was stopped by an Alitalia Manager whose name is Alex. She showed him all the necessary tickets, passport, continuing flights etc. He refused to allow her to board the plane on three basis as follows:

First: Was that if she decided to â€œescapeâ€ the airport in Milan he would be in trouble. This is spite of the fact that he could have had her escorted by security.

Second. He could not verify the credit card that paid for the tickets even though she had confirmed paid tickets in hand and that information would not be available to him anyway.

Lastly. He could not verify her continuing flights from Caracas to Belize because they were on a different carrier despite Alitaliaâ€™s only obligation was to get her to Caracas.

He made her wait outside in the rain for the most of 4 hours until the flight left without her. She was I might add the only black African who was to transit through Italy and the only person made to wait outside the building. The real reasons for her denial are self evident. I again stress she is legal to travel the entire itinerary and that visas, passports, tickets or like was not an issue nor reason for refusal. To say I am livid is putting it mildly.

I applied for a refund with OneTravel.com to get my money back. Quite simply we need it to purchase a different flight, this time hopefully with TAP Airlines from Dakar to Lisbon to Caracas and finally to Belize.

OneTravel refused stating that it was a problem with Alitalia and not them. Alitalia says they will not refund because they did not sell the tickets directly and I have to get the refund back from OneTravel. All I know is that someone has my money. We were not only insulted by Alitaliaâ€™s employee and my wife humiliated, but we are also out the funds we need to get her to Belize. Furthermore, in anticipation of the flights, we gave up our apartment in Dakar. She is now bunking with friends.

To add insult to injury, from all indications and information available apparently someone checked my wife in as having boarded the flight to Milan. If so, that means someone traveled to Milan on an Alitalia flight whose name obviously didnâ€™t appear on the manifest because my wifeâ€˜s name was on it. Because of this we were asked if we were applying for a partial refund. This whole thing has gone past the point of insanity. Maybe this was the reason she was refused ? For a planned nameless someone else ? Wonder what thatâ€™s worth to some? Alex himself left on that same flight. Maybe he needed a seat ? I donâ€™t know. Itâ€™s all conjecture. I just know our circumstance.

TravelOne suggested perhaps a reschedule with Alitalia but I refuse to send my wife back to face the same gate with the same person for the same results. My wife tried to obtain a refund in Dakar but they refused. I used a Visa debit card for purchase which I filed a dispute and they claim they cannot refund without permission of OneTravel.

I filed a complaint several months ago with the FTC in the US because I purchased the tickets in the US. No word yet. EU finally sent this American a complaint process months after I inquired. Not holding out much hope with them.

Any suggestions from anyone? We are at wits end. I am in Belize and my wife still in Dakar. Has anyone ever heard of a situation similar? I cant believe all this. Does anyone know of any other method to which apply for a refund? Is there another organization or process available?

Any input would be appreciated.
Thanks

atlanta-bound · Non-Elite Joined: 01 Oct 2006 Posts: 23

I'm afraid I don't have any advice to offer, this one is way out of my league but please let us know how you make out. Good luck.