AlicorporateUK

So I decided to give Alitalia a try and, despite the fact that it wasn't the most logical thing in terms of logistics (I'm based in the UK), I had nonetheless been planning to give the new Magnifica a go for long time so, helped by the fact that I was out in the continent (Warsaw and then Rome) on business, I booked a rather last-minute FCO-LAX for a definitely-non-business weekend in California.

Here are [briefly] my impressions concerning the Magnifica experience.

Entering the triple-seven and showing my electronic boarding pass to the Sophia Loren-type-of-woman cabin crew attendant, I was greeted with a pathetic “I'm old and I can't read that” (what's that supposed to mean - kind of sarcasm?), with no smile nor “Good morning” or anything (actually, with a stinky attitude). Now: I know that people can have bad days and that she was perhaps leaving the cat for a few days (), but that's still unacceptable and something that I had never experienced before (P.S.: be pissed-off as much as you like, but at least be bothered to greet people or at least pretend that you actually care, otherwise it's time to change profession, Madam). Off to a good start, hey? I will also mention that, during boarding, cabin crew members kept checking their mobile phones, which I also found highly unprofessional. Food wasn't great (pasta reminded me of those macaroni cheese you get in cans at Asda!), yet I had fish for main course and they got that right; the wine choice wasn't that good either (far from being an expert here, but perhaps I had set my expectations significantly high, given that I was flying with an Italian airline!). Furthermore, I do not think that the in-flight entertainment has ever changed since the 90s (old logos, dated videos etc.) and that also gives you the idea of an airline which, regardless of who's in charge (Etihad or whoever), has loads to do in order to compete with the 'big ones' out there. After the lunch service, all flight attendants disappeared, leaving just a couple of bottles of water in the 'bar area' (!). Adding to misery, the IFE stopped working 3/4 hours after take-off (this affected just one section of the J cabin), however they eventually managed to fix it.

Morale of the story: I am not going to say that I will never fly Alitalia again because I appreciate that this could have well been a disappointing one-off experience but, but... Being one of those who used to fly with them on a regular basis in the past (mainly when MXP was their main hub), I can see that some of the things due to which the airline has built such bad reputation throughout the years are yet to change and here I mean: unprofessional-not bothered staff, terrible ground experience (FCO - can it get worse than that anywhere else?) and shabby service overall.

I have a JFK-FCO coming up and I genuinely hope to report an entirely different experience.

In the meantime, please find below a couple of pictures of the seat/on-board service.

G

terminalfive

Not great eh!!!

Have to say that my experiences in long haul J have been pretty good.

You didn't mention the seat which is probably the best part of J experience (one of the best J seats around) - did you rest ok?

IFE isn't great but it does have quite a good selection of films (nothing compared to Etihad, granted). It has to work though....

AlicorporateUK

I omitted to mention the seat however, let's face it, there's choice out there [when it comes to fully-flat seats]. I normally fly AF long haul and, despite what some people think, the overall experience, both on board and at CDG (which has improved massively), has always been outstanding to me (you know what you're going to get - no surprises there). Anyway, as I said in my previous post, it might have been a one-off bad experience so I look forward to a better flight on the 330 from JFK to FCO (unless I am so lucky to get one of the former AP planes...).

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straniero

I fly often longhaul in J (thanks, company policies!) and in the past I always had good experiences with AZ - often shared in my TRs.

During the last two years however I have noticed a constant lack of interest, care, professionalism and sometimes even good manners in the crews, ranging from the times the FAs didn't even say hello on boarding to that one time where an FA spilled the spumante over me and literally threw me a napkin to dry my shirt without even saying sorry.

Thanks to all of those -repeated- events I moved over to other carriers where the service is at least slightly better than that. Not that AZ cares about losing a customer anyway, no matter their status.

Too bad, because the hard product is still very good.

FlyAO2

I flew AZ for the first time and have to say I was pretty impressed with the onboard experience. Airport personnel are a bit lax in effort, but found the hard product seat to be very comfortable and food was decent.

Not sure how you like AF, AF hard product is complete garbage....what kind of airline doesn't have flatbeds in business (oh right, AF and most of AA - although that's being upgraded)