AlicorporateUK

As per above, I thought to drop a few lines/comments further to a rather odd London-Warsaw via Rome and back with Alitalia.

Starting with AZ’s own lounges (I shall not mention the Sky Team & Ballada lounges respectively at LHR & WAW for obvious reasons): poor, very poor. I mean: as Italy’s leading airline, Alitalia should seriously consider reviewing their food options in terms of both quality and offering. I am not particularly fussy when it comes to style or comfy sofas (especially if I’m away with work), but the general feeling was that those lounges had basically been abandoned somehow. I visited the Dolce Vita lounge on a Saturday morning and found just a few pastries (I doubt they were even fresh to be honest!), which made me regret the fact that I had intentionally skipped the hotel’s breakfast just a few minutes before. I then visited the other lounge just above gate D1 (sorry – I can’t remember the name as I’m barely alive this morning) and, same here, just a few not-inviting pastries (I did enjoy the cappuccino, though). On my way back, I popped-in to Le Navi (? – Again, my memory not helping at all this morning) at lunch time and, again, wasn’t too impressed (the offering consisted of a choice of pasta, couscous & a few slices of pizza – believe me, not good as it all sounds). Let us hope this is just a temporary thing before Etihad starts sorting things out. P.S.: has the catering company changed recently?

Check-in: I did it on-line and it worked however, once at the airport, I noticed that my FCO-WAW electronic boarding pass did not have any seat on it hence I went to one of the desks where I promptly got it re-printed (change of aircraft’s configuration perhaps).

On-board experience: whilst you can’t really judge an airline based on such short flights, I however thought to mention that, as somebody previously noted (I can’t remember whether it was here or on good-old aviazionecivile.it), alcoholic drinks are no longer offered on flights below 3 hours. Furthemore, the overall offering was basically limited to coffee, tea, water & orange juice (and the now widely popular “Biscotti or Salatini”!), which is nonetheless okay on short-haul. That aside, it was heartening to notice that all crew members I came across were really nice & professional and I also had a good chat with one of them on my way back to London. Lastly, all flights were smoothly on-time and, funnily enough, 3 out of 4 legs were operated by 2 of the ‘previous generation’s’ aircrafts (I-BIKA & EI-IXH), which definitely sparkled the memories!

Airport experience: FCO has notably improved since my last visit. Sky Priority worked a treat both at security & while boarding (which was impressive to say the least given that queues are unpopular by nature in Italy! ) and I made the connection on my way back (WAW-FCO B gates -> LHR gate H1) in just a couple of minutes.

I hope I will soon be able to review the on-board experience on long-haul.

Ciao

G

straniero

Overall it seems a good experience, IMO.

I agree wholeheartedly on lounges: airside at FCO are unbearable, La Dolce Vita is not bad but probably depends on the time of the day (I love the salame and cheese cubes mid day).

I am disappointed by the recent change of OJ from bloody red Santal to standard Orange (Sterilgarda if I'm not mistaken); however I think the quality of the snacks is not bad compared to other companies where you can barely get water and hopefully we're still far away from the 'semini o lupini?' scene in Pappa e Ciccia .

AlicorporateUK

Indeed ^

You are not - and it wasn't that bad

I love the biscuits! However, I do miss the Alisnack (I'm a nostalgic - there's nothing I can do about it)

G

raistlin

It seems you were particularly unlucky with Dolce Vita. At noon and in the evening they offer very reasonable pasta salads and sandwiches.