I personally wouldn't have any objection to wearing a bracelet that contained personal information about me and/or my luggage and my destination and traveling companion(s). I have nothing to hide, and can actually see the benefit of it if something unfortunate should happen. However, I would not wear anything that could in any way "zap" me and cause potential harm to my health or physical state.

I consider this forum to be a community - at least that was how it started out. It is certainly not meant to be as narrowly defined as TripAdvisor, which is larger and varied enough to have many specific subforums. Gardenweb also has a travel forum, but it has very few posts, and so it is rather pointless to expect to get much information there. We used to have a dedicated "conversations" section in this forum, but it did not survive the transition from Gardenweb to Houzz, even though many people still wanted it. Since we no longer have that section and many of us still feel like a community, we occasionally have O/T threads - none of which are meant to offend. As for Alitatlia, I will say that I had a very good experience with that airline, but that was two years ago, and I would think that you would prefer to read more recent reviews, since the airline has experienced labor problems lately. I hope it survives, one way or another, as I intend to go back to Italy in the fairly near future, and it had the only non-stop flights from LAX to Rome. I posted the question on this forum because I am familiar with many people who regularly post here, I value their opinions, and I know that many have been to Italy in the past. If I post on TripAdvisor, I have to rely on the kindness of strangers, but I have gotten good advice there as well, especially for Fiji, and I learned about the Fiji forums on TripAdvisor on this forum. By the way, I did a Google search for Alitalia and did not find this thread or forum at all, and so I'm not sure how you found this!

A few thoughts - --I had to cancel an American flight last year, and I think the fee was $200 or $250. --Typically you have one year to use the credit from a cancellation, but it's one year from when you made the original reservation, NOT one year from when your original flight was. So pay close attention to the expiration date, since it's likely earlier than your original flight date. Also ask to make sure whether you have to fly by the expiration date, or just book by the expiration date. --I don't think I had to fly to the same destination as the original flight (even though I did), but I think it did have to be the same person taking the replacement flight. I'm not sure about that because I was planning to use my credit anyway, but I seem to recall the agent saying something about that. It's worth asking if you're considering trying to combine both your and your husband's flight credits for one flight for one of you or something like that - they may not let you do that. --Cancel before the day your first flight takes off. If you wait until after your first flight leaves, then you're considered a no-show and I think your options may not be as good? --When I cancelled my flight, I found the way they worded the credit confusing. If you pay $1,000 for a flight (just to keep the numbers round!) and the fee is $200, I expected to be told that I had an $800 credit. But they tell you that you have a $1,000 credit, and the fee will be deducted when you go to re-book the flight. So it amounts to the same thing - you still have $800 of usable credit, I just found the wording confusing. I think maybe they phrase it that way in case they decide to increase the fee before you use the credit, and then they'd be deducting the new higher fee from your credit instead.

Here is a crazy funny story about flying flags, a self-acknowledged diversion/comic relief, if you will. An American flag at a house led to a prost*****on ring getting busted a few years ago in our city. This story attracted great public and media attention because the site of the illegal operation was your typical white-picket-fence-type house smack in the middle of a middle-class neighborhood, a long-established community of educated, financially sound folks, if not the super wealthy. Yes, a flag. Here is how the story goes, according to the police and the city newspaper. The head of the operation chose, of all things, a typical US flag flying at the front by the garage door, as a signal to the Jo**s, in addition to the address. (An unfortunate and incredibly dumb choice, obviously.) Within a few weeks, the police were getting numerous calls from the residents on that street about random men ringing the door bell at all times of the night, and leaving hurriedly without a word when the owner answered the door. You guessed it, all these folks calling the police lived on the same street close to the house where all the action was, and yes, these houses also had American flags flying in the front. The men, looking for the house number mostly in the middle of the night, found “the brick house with the American flag” only to find the wary, befuddled owner answering the door and calling the police soon after. The story, well-sourced by police records and statements, was as shocking as it was hilarious. This is a 75-year old neighborhood full of retirees, young families, employees of the state’s flagship university and such. It was incredible that it was the site of such an operation and that a criminal would be so crazy-dumb.