Originally Posted by Romanianflyer

My bet is that it's an IT issue with ITA... when I booked my XP run (SOF-FCO-LIN r/t), I could select seats for free immediately during the booking process (in J, being FB plat). However, on one of the four flights I didn't pre-select my seat as my 4G internet was a bit patchy when I made the booking, and I therefore skipped seat selection on that flight thinking I could easily do that later. That ended up not being the case as on the manage booking page, I suddenly couldn't access any of the seat maps anymore. Only at OLCI the seat maps all appeared again and I could change/select seats as normal.

My flights on ITA were pleasant enough, for what it's worth. I appreciate they do have a bit of an Italian touch on board, like serving aperol, or limoncello after the meal service. Intra-European meals are however a bit hit-or-miss, although we are all used to that with Air France as well. On intra-EU flights it's either a trio of sandwiches, or a hot meal (mostly pasta). The latter is not necessarily always better. On my SOF-FCO flight, the trio of sandwiches were really tasty, as was the cannoli as dessert. However, on the return, they served pasta as meal and it was overloaded with cheese and rather tasteless - more like an Americanised version of pasta which you'd expect on a US carrier, not on an Italian one... But with some good quality, free-flowing red wine, and limoncello afterwards, who am I to complain..

The manned bars with cocktails and proper espresso at the FCO and LIN lounges were also a plus, although I wouldn't want to be stuck for a long layover at the Hangar lounge at FCO.

Interesting to see that ITA (at least on their domestic routes like FCO-LIN) doesn't block the adjacent seat of the two-abreast (seats A-C) on their Airbus A220, so unlike Air France you are better off selecting either D or F on the starboard side to still have the seat next to you empty.

As usual with ITA Airways, miles/XP didn't credit automatically, so had to do this manually, after which they were added to my account within 10 minutes. Note that a retro-claim of miles and XP can only be done from 8 days after your flight.