While I'm in Italy next week I will need to call AA for FF seats for the return leg of my trip to Italy next year (I just scored the outbound seats last night-a subject for another thread!). I seem to recall that you cannot call a US 800 # from Italy but I'm not sure. Can you make such a call from Italy and if not any ideas on what I shoud do? I don't want to spend this much antcipated trip worrying about my ability to reserve seats for the next one!

Good morning Colleen! That's exciting news.

I have called some 800 #s from Italy, and sometimes have gotten a recording that says "This will not be a toll-free call, blah blah blah" but it goes through.

Here's the # for AA in Rome: 06 660 531 69. They were able to change my Aadvantage miles return flight to one a month later while I was in Florence. They were incredibly helpful.

Thanks Maureen that's great news! I knew someone would have the answer for me.

Colleen, if you have access to someone with a voip phone, you can call 800 just like at home. I do that with my SKYPE connection all the time. If you visit us, you can use mine. See you next week.

Jane,
I think the date I need to call is when we'll bein Montalcino. So unless you have your laptop with you, I'll figure out a way to get that call made by cell or hotel phone. See you soon!

If the number is an "international-enabled" AT&T 800 number, you can first call the AT&T access line in Italy (800-172-444), and then dial the US 800 number (start with the 800; no need to dial 00 or country code if you're going through the US AT&T connection number). If it is a free-for-international-calls 800 number, it'll go through. If not, it will ask for a credit card/AT&T calling card number - at which point you can hang up. Note that many Italian calling cards will not allow you to call 800 numbers in the US, and calls from cell phones are much more expensive than from landlines. (You may need to use a landline to access the AT&T number above; I'm not sure about that part.)

Or you could call AA from the US before you leave, and ask if they have a US number you can call collect from overseas, like many credit cards do. Can't hurt to ask...

Hope you have a GREAT trip, Colleen!

To call a US 800 number from a normal Italian phone, dial 1-880 instead of 1-800. The call will not be free but at least it will go through. AT&T, Skype, and other methods of bypassing the Italian system will work with the 800 prefix but possibly not be free.

Maureen
www.maureenbfant.com

Is it 1-880 or 001-880 (or +1-880 if you hold down on the zero on a cell phone to get the + display)? It's been posted before that you could start 001-800.

quote:

Skype, and other methods of bypassing the Italian system will work with the 800 prefix but possibly not be free.

I can't speak for other systems, but SKYPE is free. I do it all the time.

Not every 800 number can be dialed from an Italian cell phone. We learned that the hard way after recharging our nobelcom account (www.nobelcom.com) and then trying to use it with our cell phone or from coin phones. Didn't work with either. Apparently, the calling card provider needs to have an agreement with the local telephone company or the "toll-free" call doesn't go through. As far as we can tell, nobelcom has no agreement with TIM, the Italian phone company. So we had to get our calling cards from various tabachi along the way. They worked fine, but we usually found that the cards represented as offering 100+ minutes to the U.S. actually gave us 25-30. The Edicard was the worst offender in this respect. Our workaround was to call the U.S. and have them call back on the nobelcom card. The latter did work on landlines, but nothing else. The lesson learned is to confirm that your calling card will work on cell phones, coin phones, and landlines . . . before taking your trip. Otherwise, locally bought calling cards will be the probable available option.

There probably isn't a simple answer to the question of why the toll free number works for some of the people some of the time.

I have no idea whether the local telephone companies or calling card providers are involved, but I do know that the business owning the toll free number dictates the areas from which the number can be used. For example we have an 800 number but you cannot call me from Italy using it. It is for the use of our customers, and for the most part our customers are in Canada and the USA, therefore we have limited the use to those countries. We have suppliers in Europe, but there we are the customer so we do not feel we need to offer the free service to them!

The real solution of course is to use Skype. Perhaps if Pauline contacted Skype they would take out a classified with ST and then someone could do a 'How To Use' page for them.

Skype is great . . . as long as there's a high speed connection, which is anything but common. With time, that will change, but for the moment it's an issue.

Russell, I think there is a land line option with Skype - not free but almost. I don't know enough about it - perhaps someone with more details will explain.

quote:

Russell, I think there is a land line option with Skype - not free but almost. I don't know enough about it - perhaps someone with more details will explain.

SKYPE does work via the computer-not landline. You must have a connection and, my understanding is that dial-up connections don't work all that well. Fortunately I have highspeed in CA and here in Italy so I have never tried it on dial-up.

The person with SKYPE needs to be connected but, it is possible to have a regular phone number which non-SKYPERs can use to call the SKYPE line. For instance, we have a 619 area code number (our at home area code) which people can call and reach us on SKYPE. It doesn't cost anything on either end for that call--unless it is a non 619 area code calling and then it is the normal long distance call--such as calling from PA to CA. That number cost me $36 for a year.

I can call long distance from my SKYPE phone or computer to a landline anywhere for just pennies--mobiles cost a little more. SKYPE works like a normal phone--voice messages, etc.

I was on with United last week for about an hour at their 800 number--no cost. I asked about the connection at their end and was told it was perfect--they had no idea I was calling via computer from Italy.

Hope this helps a little on the SKYPE issue.

Reporting back that I had no trouble calling an 800 number from my Italian cell phone. It was not a toll free call and that was clearly stated once the # was dialed, giving you the option of hanging up if you did not want to be charged international rates. As always when calling a US # from Europe, I just had to dial the 001 prefix. It was worth whatever it costs to secure my FF seats for my my next trip to Italy!

That's great that you secured your FF seats, but just FYI, a MUCH cheaper way would have been to call the local (in country) Rome number that Maureen posted from your cell.

For this, other airlines, and financial institutions, for example, to avoid excessive charges it always (literally) pays to give them before your trip and get the Italian or out-of-country number. You can always resort to toll-free number if absolutely necessary.