Trip Reports - Alitalia: 6 flights in two weeks - overall impressions

I have never been a fan of my national airlne (can't be blamed for that I guess) but I fly it occasionally mainly because it is either the only choice (domestic) or else the timings are more convenient.
These were my first flights with the 'new' Alitalia so I was somewhat eager to see if anything had changed.

I flew in two weeks the following sectors:
Rome-Trieste-Rome (domestic - Y only)
Rome-London-Rome (business)
Rome-Casablanca-Rome (business)

Here are some general comments:

Check-in:
Rome domestic: I checked-in at the Bramante lounge and it was fast and easy.
Rome international: I used the Canova lounge (landside) in the C Terminal which was basically a separate check-in island with some couches and newspapers. Service was fast and efficient.
London Heathrow: the most unfriendly ground agent. Did not even bother to put the priority tag to my bag.
Casablanca: Alitalia is handled by RAM in Terminal 1 - pretty gloomy and in the process of a major face-lift

Priority security/lounges
Bramante lounge (Terminal A): nice apron views and quite large, comfortable couches and a breakfast spread which included croissants, cakes, yoghurts and freshly made espresso coffee. Terminal A (domestic/Schengen) has a dedicated security check which was nice.
Giotto Lounge (Terminal C): an absolute dump. Will not bother spending any time there at all. Aside from the lack of natural light and the sparse decor, couches are badly scratched and the place is dirty, crowded and depressing.
As a flagship longhaul J lounge, it is plainly disgraceful.
Canaletto Lounge (London): again unfriendly/uninterested ground agent. What is the problem with AZ ground staff at LHR? They appeared to be neither english nor italian either. The lounge has nice views but that was about it. I ended up using the LH Senator lounge across which has better amenities.
Casablanca: the Royal Air Maroc lounge is superb. Lots of room, comfortable couches, several internet stations and even a small corner with a man in berber outfit dispensing tea from traditional copper pots. Reading material was rather limited and AC was a little too low. It is catered by a Delicatessen in Casablanca and has different offerings according to the time of the day. Lunch choices included moroccan lemon chicken or grilled salmon with a choice of breads.

Boarding:
Rome-Fiumicino: all 3 departures were by bus. This was very poorly managed and caused a delay to all the ex-FCO flights (an most likely to the return trip). FCO lacks airbridges? Then perhaps it should not be the hub of a national airline then.
LHR & CMN: airbridges here so no complaints

Punctuality:
FCO-TRS: ETA 1035, ATA 1045
TRS-FCO: ETA 1240 ATA 1240
FCO-LHR: ETA 1125 ATA 1140
LHR-FCO: ETA 2330 ATA 2310
FCO-CMN: ETA 1135 ATA 1205
CMN-FCO: ETA 1630 ATA 1805 (!!!)

Inflight service:
TOTALLY inconsistent.
The FCO-LHR flight was operated by AirOne (AP). They served a cold breakfast which although modest was at least somewhat filling.

The return flight LHR-FCO was at dinner time. Now this is what I was presented with: a bread roll, a small pizza (dried out), a small slice of what appeared to be diced shrimp in jelly and a very tiny fruit salad (two mouthfuls at most). This is for C on a 2h 30m flight? You have got to be kidding me. Compare this to hot meals BA serves on the route... and you understand why I was the only passenger in C (the other two were off-duty crew).

For the Rome-Casablanca-Rome legs (3h+) we were offered proper hot meals: breakfast of fruits and eggs to CMN, ravioli and a seafood salad from CMN. The quality and quantity of the food was better on these flights however wine was served in plastic cups (they used glassware on flights to/from LHR). The main course on the CMN-FCO flight was lukewarm and service was disorganized: after distributing trays the FA disappeared in Y class (presumably to help out) and returned to offer more bread rolls and drink refills long after we'd finished eating.

Service on the whole was friendlier than it used to be, at least crew did not appear openly hostile to passengers as was often the case in the past. But they have a long way to go in terms of efficiency and attentiveness.

One final observation:.the CMN-FCO flight was delayed by over 90 minutes. The crew onboard explained that this was due to a no-show whose bags had to be located and offloaded from the aircraft. Not AZ's fault for sure but why on earth did this take 90 minutes?? I simply do not buy it. I have been on flights with no shows ex-ZRH where the delay has been 20 minutes at most.
This means that: a) either AZ is lying and that there were other additional reasons for the delay; b) FCO is so poorly managed that what can be accomplished in 20 min elsewhere takes 90 minutes there.

Verdict: seriously lacking in terms of hardware product (this can be addressed though), the airline's image is certainly not helped by very poor ground services at its current hub (FCO).

One final observation:.the CMN-FCO flight was delayed by over 90 minutes. The crew onboard explained that this was due to a no-show whose bags had to be located and offloaded from the aircraft. Not AZ's fault for sure but why on earth did this take 90 minutes?? I simply do not buy it. I have been on flights with no shows ex-ZRH where the delay has been 20 minutes at most.
This means that: a) either AZ is lying and that there were other additional reasons for the delay; b) FCO is so poorly managed that what can be accomplished in 20 min elsewhere takes 90 minutes there.
Might be related to the type of aircraft and/or ground handling procedure.
On a plane where luggage is loaded into containers (which are then loaded onto the aircraft), such as e.g. the Airbus A320 family, it's fairly simple to retrieve a bag IF all tags have been scanned when the container is filled with luggage. You pull up the no-show's data on the computer, locate the container that contains his/her bag(s), offload that container only, sift through a limited number of bags, et voilà! a bag.
If lots of bags are just stuffed into the plane hold, then ground crew have to sift though all of them, as the bag they're looking for could be anywhere in the hold. According to Murphy's law, the bag they're looking for will be the last bag they check.

Bramante lounge (Terminal A): nice apron views and quite large, comfortable couches and a breakfast spread which included croissants, cakes, yoghurts and freshly made espresso coffee. Terminal A (domestic/Schengen) has a dedicated security check which was nice.
Giotto Lounge (Terminal C): an absolute dump. Will not bother spending any time there at all. Aside from the lack of natural light and the sparse decor, couches are badly scratched and the place is dirty, crowded and depressing.
As a flagship longhaul J lounge, it is plainly disgraceful.

I actually think both of them are quite bad. As the one in Terminal B. At FCO, I prefer to use AF's, which is a lot quieter (at least there is no-one speaking very loudly in the mobile phone).



The return flight LHR-FCO was at dinner time. Now this is what I was presented with: a bread roll, a small pizza (dried out), a small slice of what appeared to be diced shrimp in jelly and a very tiny fruit salad (two mouthfuls at most). This is for C on a 2h 30m flight? You have got to be kidding me. Compare this to hot meals BA serves on the route... and you understand why I was the only passenger in C (the other two were off-duty crew).

I just got an op-up from FCO to AMS in a lunchtime flight and it was somewhat similar. Instead of the shrimp, we got a tiny slice of melon and prosciutto crudo. The dried out pizzas were offered twice, though.

FCO lacks airbridges? Then perhaps it should not be the hub of a national airline then.
I wouldn't be too harsh on them because of this. Not only it isn't their fault (and LIN or MXP aren't any better in this regard), but also other big European hubs are alike (eg, FRA or CDG).