Alitalia & Rome - outstanding service!
Jan 17, 2008, 5:43 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2005
Programs: AAdvantage, BA Miles, BMI Diamond Club
Posts: 11
Alitalia & Rome - outstanding service!
Hi,
We've just returned from a trip to Sicily from London, flying Alitalia from Heathrow T2 to Rome (FCO) to Catania and back. I was a little worried about this as my command of Italian is limited and I find that even with English speaking airlines, it's sometimes hard to get everything right for my wife, who travels with a wheelchair, can't walk up or down aircraft steps and needs an aisle seat with movable armrests on all flights. As the flight was quite cheap I'd booked an extra seat to give us more space and avoid the need for my wife to get up to let another passenger in or out.
Alitalia are the ONLY airline we've ever flown with where absolutely everything went perfectly. The day before we flew, they phoned me to discuss my wife's requirements so that they could pre-allocate our seats. The seats they gave us were in the only part of the aircraft where the aisle armrests are movable (near the back on the left side) - and the FA knew how to raise the aisle armrests, which is unusual in my experience.
In Rome, everything worked like clockwork - with the lift brought to the nearest door of the aircraft (the rear door) and our wheelchair ready in the lift. Then a transfer to a waiting van to take us to the terminal building, an electric buggy there waiting there to take us through the airport (a long way) and then someone to push my wife the rest of the way. And they refused to accept a tip that we offered.
The seats on our second flight seemed wrong and I was going to try and get them changed at the gate but they'd got everything so right up to that point that I didn't. I was right not to - again they'd done the most intelligent thing they could to provide my wife with the movable armrest she needed and an empty seat, with me sitting across the aisle (this was an MD80 with two only seats one side of the aisle).
On the return our seats were allocated at the check-in, so again I was concerned that the right seats would be allocated for both flights. I was particularly concerned that on the first flight they were giving seats in Row 5, which is Business Class, where armrests aren't usually movable. I needn't have worried; when we boarded I saw that on my wife's seat the armrest had already been lowered (I've never seen this before), so all was well and of course we had larger, more comfortable seats, which was a nice bonus. On this flight someone had to be boarded on a stretcher from the rear of the aircraft but having dealt with that, they then moved the lift to the front door for us, as it was closer to our allocated seats. My wife could have managed from the back door but this level of care impressed us greatly.
We were so impressed with the whole experience from beginning to end. Basd on these four flights, we can say that Alitalia is by far the best airline we've ever travelled with with a disability.
We've just returned from a trip to Sicily from London, flying Alitalia from Heathrow T2 to Rome (FCO) to Catania and back. I was a little worried about this as my command of Italian is limited and I find that even with English speaking airlines, it's sometimes hard to get everything right for my wife, who travels with a wheelchair, can't walk up or down aircraft steps and needs an aisle seat with movable armrests on all flights. As the flight was quite cheap I'd booked an extra seat to give us more space and avoid the need for my wife to get up to let another passenger in or out.
Alitalia are the ONLY airline we've ever flown with where absolutely everything went perfectly. The day before we flew, they phoned me to discuss my wife's requirements so that they could pre-allocate our seats. The seats they gave us were in the only part of the aircraft where the aisle armrests are movable (near the back on the left side) - and the FA knew how to raise the aisle armrests, which is unusual in my experience.
In Rome, everything worked like clockwork - with the lift brought to the nearest door of the aircraft (the rear door) and our wheelchair ready in the lift. Then a transfer to a waiting van to take us to the terminal building, an electric buggy there waiting there to take us through the airport (a long way) and then someone to push my wife the rest of the way. And they refused to accept a tip that we offered.
The seats on our second flight seemed wrong and I was going to try and get them changed at the gate but they'd got everything so right up to that point that I didn't. I was right not to - again they'd done the most intelligent thing they could to provide my wife with the movable armrest she needed and an empty seat, with me sitting across the aisle (this was an MD80 with two only seats one side of the aisle).
On the return our seats were allocated at the check-in, so again I was concerned that the right seats would be allocated for both flights. I was particularly concerned that on the first flight they were giving seats in Row 5, which is Business Class, where armrests aren't usually movable. I needn't have worried; when we boarded I saw that on my wife's seat the armrest had already been lowered (I've never seen this before), so all was well and of course we had larger, more comfortable seats, which was a nice bonus. On this flight someone had to be boarded on a stretcher from the rear of the aircraft but having dealt with that, they then moved the lift to the front door for us, as it was closer to our allocated seats. My wife could have managed from the back door but this level of care impressed us greatly.
We were so impressed with the whole experience from beginning to end. Basd on these four flights, we can say that Alitalia is by far the best airline we've ever travelled with with a disability.
