A very good friend of mine flys Alitalia between New York and Rome twice a year in Y class and says they are fine. I recently flew them but it was C class and we were satisfied.

However in my opinion on the transatlantic routes make sure you are either on a Boeing 767 or 777. Avoid the older MD-11s and old 747-200s though I think they no longer operate them.

You have to beware of regular strikes by Alitalia crews and/or the airport control tower or the whole country.

However this should be no problem if you are planning short term as all strikes are pre-announced. When we travelled in May/June we missed 3 strikes in a 2 month period but we knew ahead of time that we were OK.

In terms of baggage, though we made a connection we got our bags. I have heard of problems in Paris. In fact my aunts bag was lost this summer connecting in Paris from JFK to Geneva. It ended up in Madrid of all places and took 3 days to reach her home.

It was also difficult to contact AF.