I flew from Berlin's Tegel airport on a tuesday morning on AZ to Milan's Malpensa 2000 airport. As there was only one person ahead of me, check-in was swift. My window seat was the one mentioned on my e-mail confirmation (which other airline assignes Y seats at reservation for a medium range fight?) Although (or because?) the aircraft left Berlin pretty early (06:50 a. m.), the line in front of security was rather long, but moved quickly. Boarding was a breeze, because you only had to climb down some stairs and to go a few meters to the aircraft.
The Embraer jet was about 60 percent booked. Italian, English and German newspapers were offered upon entering. Cabin had a 1-2 seat configuration, was clean and leather seats were comfy. Pre-recorded announcements were made in Italian, English and German, live annoucements in Italian and English. Lift-off was on time. Service was efficient and offered full bar and a snack box containing a ham roll, a sponge cake, and a small amount of water. My companion even got the special meal, he requested. Far more that other airlines will provide.
After landing in Malpensa 2000 (actually it looked like Malpensa 1978) and a short bus drive, baggage was delivered 16 minutes after touch-down, which was decent considering that at the same time several U. S. planes arrived.
Return flight on a sunday evening to TXL was as good as the flight to MXP. Even Martini Riesling Italico sparkling wine was offered (usually for C-class only, but there were no C passengers).
A little strange, though, was my internet booking at
www.alitalia.de. You get a confirmation right away, but it states, that your ticket will be issued within the next 48 hours and until that point, the ticket price mentioned is not guaranteed (anyway, I got the price I hoped for - an unbelievably low 90 EUR, including 10 EUR online discount). Furthermore, AZ telephone reservations were not able to add my DL SkyMiles number to my reservation (when booking, you can only enter a AZ number) or change seats after the ticket was issued. This could only be done at check-in.
All in all: despite AZ's bad reputation, my flight experience was very pleasant. Only the booking process was a little unusual.