Alitalia MilleMiglia - Report on Alitalia flights from a first timer - incl opup attempt

i flew Alitalia RT JFK-FCO this weekend for a pleasure trip/MR. I have no status with AZ, but Silver status with Delta [soon to be Gold with this FCO trip]. I felt great going into the situation based on all the advice here regarding upgrades. I asked at the AZ ticket counter in JFK where I had to pick up my boarding pass b/c Delta [the first leg of my trip] can't provide it for me since it's an AZ booking. They said it's possible to get an upgrade, that I need to check with the gate agents. At the gate, I asked the agent who again said it's possible, check with the FAs on board. On board, the FAs told me they aren't allowed to move people unless ticketing/GAs had physically moved our seats in the system. (While I could live with all of this since I didn't deserve/earn the upgrade some spastic woman 2 rows up from me was screaming at the attendant b/c the gate agent had told her there was plenty of room and she just needed to ask the FA to move her up and the FA was giving her the same "we're not allowed" speech. And i had heard the GA tell the woman this- it wasn't a vague maybe but a "yeah there are definitely seats, just ask the FA to move you up".).

Anyway, I was dressed the FC part, I was polite, and friendly and smiled, was discreet in my approach to the various agents each time, and phrased my question simply as "I wanted to inquire as to whether there was any C class availability due to overbooking or perhaps any other reason, as it would be lovely to finally relax after a hectic weekend in Rome."

So what did I do wrong? How did I miss out on this easy to come by upgrades [at least as reported on FT they are supposed to be easy]. Do you think it's because I'm not Delta Platinum/Elite Plus? The FC cabins were almost empty btw, so it wasn't an occupancy issue.

As for the flights themselves, they were pleasant. The food was good, the personal AVOD was nice, and the FAs were professional and kind. I did have a mixup whereby they insisted I had ordered a seafood meal [I didn't even know you could specify that preference] and while I protested at first, after they told me they had exactly the number and types of meals on board based on requests and I had no choice but to accept it or go hungry, I opened the trays and found it made me happy. Everyone else had a plain salad, I had a salad with medium shrimp cocktail on top. Yum! Everyone else had some chicken dish and I had grilled salmon with orzo. Yum!

Finally, they must do frequent seat switching. I had called AZ that day- about 2 hours before my flight to confirm whether i had a seat or not and they said i did and gave me the assignment i was in but when i went to board the plane i had a completely different seat. Not sure what was up with that. Plus they changed my booking class to Y from L. Strange.

I don't know about lately but upgrades have never been easy.

Only "easy" upgrades I know of are intra europe if Y is overbooked (very often) or if you know some crew member. Other than that not really (especially long haul).

As a crew member, I've heard the same "they told me you would upgrade me on the plane" line a thousand times. In my books - nothing ventured, nothing gained. Upgrades are an adminstrative function that are handled through passenger sales off of the aircraft. Technically crew members do not have the authority to upgrade on board. I'm sure the other 250 customers on the flight would have enjoyed that same privilege.

In this case it sounds like check-in and the gate were passing the buck. Not sure why you or the hysterical woman thought that you would eligible for an upgrade in the first place. If you had status or certification - it would have been a done deal. But again, nothing ventured.....

The last time I flew AZ previously was 1973...

I flew JFK-FCO on May 7. After reading about the endless death throes of AZ, I was pleasantly surprised to see how good my flight on AZ was.

First, I did not attempt any op-up upgrade to C. It just wasn't worth the hassle.

The gate agents at JFK were all very friendly and not hostile at all.

On board the 763 the plane was very clean and obviously well-maintained.

The seat was very comfortable and pitch perfectly adequate. I also enjoyed both the meal service and the AVOD.

The flight attendants were very professional and civil.

I noticed that AZ's 763 doesn't have a center bank of lavatories, which created an impression of great openness in the cabin.

We landed at FCO about 45 minutre early and then I was off to VCE. This flight was on an ancient MD-80, definitely tired, but it got the job done.

When I got to VCE my bag was not delivered. I only received it four days later, but the culprit here was TSA at JFK. Apparently, my bag was tagged for security reasons. Since I only had my clothes and a toothbrush I can't imagine what the problem was...

ok now i will try to explain you all what kind of deal the upgrade is.as some of you said upgrades are done when y/class is overbooked and they have free seats on j/class and need to make room for other passengers.
there are some requirements to look when upgrading passenger which are things like frequent traveller status at first ( they start from elp, elt, mpz....) then they look at the remarks on passenger files, you don't know that but but when the flight requires upgradings check in agents notify if pax are eligible for upgradings (provided they're not travelling with children and they are well mannered or dressed). Upgradings are NEVER done at check in counters (unless in particular situations) or at the gates. They are made at transit desk where stand bye lists are finalized. Then boarding agents at the gates call upgraded pax to give new boardind pass in j/class. If you're not been upgraded for these reasons, believe me, it's totally useless you ask for upgrading because they will never upgrade you for any reason, not even if you ask to deduct miles because you cannot do that at the gate ( i mean with az).boarding a 777 is quite a big deal so there are too many things to do in such a short time and most of the time they tell you to ask on board to cut the conversation. On board same thing, you can probably switch seat but never get upgraded, and most of the times upgrading are not available beacuse of business class meal missing.It sounds weird but company order meals considering the number of passenger booked.
As for the seat change it depends on the presence of children families wheelchairs and particular assistance passengers that usually has to be put in front seats, possibly by the aisle and infants in rows 14/15.

Hope it makes sense to all of you......

A couple years ago flying AZ JFK-MXP I was in J and a colleague in Y. We had several boxes to check, and apparently AZ does not (or did not) accept checked boxes as baggage so we had to go downstair to a luggage store and purchase a suitcase. The AZ station manager who had come out originally to explain their policy then upgraded my colleague with apologies for the inconvenience. I think with AZ it is less policy and catching the right person, with the right authority in the right situation.

there are obviously exceptions, there has to be. I only explained what the normal procedures are, and your case doesn't seem to be an average situation. glad they did that to apologize though, long haul flughts and passengers are considered more important than short or domestic ones.

As a crew member...[snip]
Not sure why you or the hysterical woman thought that you would eligible for an upgrade in the first place. If you had status or certification - it would have been a done deal. But again, nothing ventured.....

From my original post: "How did I miss out on this easy to come by upgrades [at least as reported on FT they are supposed to be easy]."

i thought i would be an easy shoe-in for an upgrade b/c prior to my trip 2 weeks ago i asked on this very forum if alitalia ever does opups for other skyteam members (thinking that maybe it happens occasionally like on AF) and the overwhelming response was basically "yeah all the time left and right just for politely asking". So it was happy news and planted a seed of expectation in my heart.

so that is why i thought an upgrade was likely- b/c people on this forum convinced me so.

Have flown Alitalia from time to time. Getting a glass of water between meal services is a major ordeal, let alone an upgrade!

Have flown Alitalia from time to time. Getting a glass of water between meal services is a major ordeal, let alone an upgrade!I recently took my first AZ flight since 1973 (see above) and while I did not attempt an upgrade, I can assure you the service was perfectly fine. The meals were excellent and I had no trouble getting water the entire flight.