Irritations with ITA Airways

The Seat Selection Saga

Traveling with children, ensuring we sat together was a priority for us. However, ITA’s online system wouldn’t allow us to choose seats. My first call to ITA’s customer service (which can be located in Italy, Brazil, or other countries) was unhelpful. The agent simply told us to contact Virgin Atlantic. Virgin Atlantic, in turn, redirected us back to ITA, providing a different number.

My second attempt with ITA was more fruitful. The agent understood our need for seat assignments but informed us we’d have to pay an additional fee to guarantee our four seats together, though only for the adults. We agreed, paid, and received an email confirmation with our chosen seats, in premium economy. We thought that was the end of it. It wasn’t.

Birthday Blunders and Endless Calls

Next, I tried to complete the required passport information online. For some inexplicable reason, when the reservation transferred from Virgin to ITA, our children’s birthdates didn’t carry over, and the online system wouldn’t accept that our children were under 12 years old. This meant another call to ITA, despite having just confirmed their ages when booking seats. The agent assured me they were coded as children and told me to wait 24 hours for the system to update.

Twenty-four hours passed, and nothing changed. The kids were still identified as adults, preventing me from entering their correct birthdates, which needed to match their passports. This cycle repeated for five phone calls. Each time, I was reassured that everything was fine and told to wait a little longer. Finally, on the fifth call, I found an agent who could actually enter their correct birthdates and recode them as children. Throughout these exasperating calls, the agents consistently sounded annoyed, including the one who finally resolved the issue. I was also yelled at by one of the agents.

The Mystery of the Moved Seats

Several months later, just before our trip, ITA emailed us about a two-hour flight delay which was a minor inconvenience, at least we knew in advance. However, when I checked in with Delta, our originating airline, I discovered a much bigger problem: our ITA seats had been inexplicably changed. We were moved 21 rows back from the premium economy seats we had specifically paid for to regular economy seats almost at the back of the airplane.

Had we not paid extra, I might have just grumbled and hoped for a resolution at the airport. But we had paid. I tried to fix it online, but ITA’s system blocked changes because we were checked in through Delta, and Delta’s system stated only ITA could make changes. So, back to the phone with ITA I went. They resent my receipts, assuring me our seats were still the original ones, despite our boarding passes showing otherwise. I was told I’d have to speak with a gate agent at our originating airport but assured our original seats would be honored.

At our home airport, Delta confirmed they couldn’t help and we’d have to wait until Boston to speak with ITA agents. We also noticed that while ITA had emailed us about the delay, Delta’s boarding passes still showed the original flight time and Delta told us the original flight time was correct.

The Boston Back-and-Forth

Upon arriving in Boston, there were no ITA agents available until closer to our flight time. Delta, again, reiterated their inability to assist. We waited. Finally, an ITA gate agent arrived. I explained our situation, that our paid premium economy seats had been moved. She simply stated the flight was full and there was nothing she could do, offering no explanation for the change. She advised me to call ITA customer service for a refund.

If I thought I was frustrated before, this call pushed me way beyond frustration. After navigating prompts and waiting on hold for 25 minutes, I finally reached an agent. After explaining everything, he curtly told me they couldn’t do anything since we hadn’t taken the flight yet. When I mentioned the gate agent’s instructions, he yelled that there was nothing more he could do and hung up on me. Despite remaining calm and polite, I was met with complete rudeness.

I returned to the gate agent and recounted the call. She apologized, admitting their customer service “was not great” and she wasn’t surprised. She reiterated the flight was full but said her supervisor was on the way.

A few minutes later, a group of agents appeared. The original gate agent walked away, so I directly approached the supervisor. She was polite as I explained our ordeal. She then looked at our boarding passes and claimed we were in the “same seats” but the “plane had been changed and was now bigger,” so our original seats were just “further back.” I pointed out the online seat map looked identical and that we had been moved from premium economy to regular economy despite paying for the premium cabin.

Her story then shifted: it wasn’t a plane change but rather a need to “balance the weight of the passengers.” The excuses were piling up. I simply asked her to put us back in our purchased cabin. After a huff, she found us seats two rows behind our original ones, but back in premium economy. I accepted, she printed new boarding passes, and we boarded.

The Unbelievable Truth

You’d think the story ends there. It doesn’t.

Once everyone was seated, I looked around. There were dozens of open seats, at least 14 visible in premium economy alone. Later, walking around the plane, I noticed open seats everywhere. The flight was clearly not full. Whether other passengers were delayed or missed their flight, there was undoubtedly ample room to have put us back in our purchased cabin from the start.