travelhive

I need some advice from those of you who have flown Alitalia as part of Skyteam. I'm flying from JFK to CTA (Catania, Sicily) and wanted to fly Delta or a Skyteam partner. The only option the Delta website gives me for this route is Alitalia to FCO, connecting on to CTA. The trans-Atlantic flight would be on a Boeing 777 and I am looking at Business class. I have not heard good things about Alitalia, and all I see online is relatively negative comments about service, food and equipment. I am questioning if this would be lie-flat seats, and the seating chart gives a somewhat confusing pattern of seats.

Anyone have recent experience with Alitalia on the JFK-FCO route in Business class? Any recommendations or alternatives?

Thanks in advance for your help.

MSPeconomist

Are you starting in MSP or JFK?

DL serves FCO nonstop from the USA and also a couple other AZ hubs in Italy such as MXP. On SkyTeam, the only flights into CTA would be domestic AZ, but you should be able to get the TATL flight on DL metal if desired. From JFK, you need (at least) one stop, in Italy to connect to the domestic AZ flight to CTA. From MSP, it will be (at least) two stops anyway and you don't have to use AZ TATL or necessarily AFAIK do the connection at FCO.

3Cforme

There are lots of people with deep experience with Alitalia who are active in the Alitalia forum. That's a good place to ask about seating configs and services.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alita...llemiglia-635/

rylan

Not sure why the DL website only gives you AZ... there are routing options through AMS as well on KLM codeshare.

MSPeconomist

AFAIK AF and KLM don't serve CTA. You still need to connect to AZ domestic at some hub in Italy. However, you don't to fly AZ TATL.

slidergirl

I did JFK-FCO-JFK on Alitalia last year. In Magnifica Class (their business class at the time). It was a 777 over and a 330 back. Honestly, it was the two best flights and service that I had in a long time. My pod was comfortable and private (I had the solo window-side pods each time). FAs were professional and friendly. The service was excellent - I had drinks when I wanted, the dinners were presented in courses, served seat-side (example - the pasta was not in individual cartons, but you were served how much you wanted from a large platter). The food quality was wonderful. I had a fish dish (a branzino) that was right on point. I enjoyed the various wines with different courses. On the FCO-JFK leg, one FA noticed I liked a particular red (had 2 glasses at meal), so he would drop by to ask if I wanted more of that particular red, even long after dinner. Just a nice touch.

I would not hesitate to fly Alitalia in business again.

travelhive

I am starting at JFK, but ending at MSP. Out of JFK there are a couple of non-AZ flights offered (Air France, KLM), but they add additional stops with somewhat long layovers. I was hoping for only one connection at most. No Delta metal was offered except for a connection to ATL (which obviously adds additional time and stops).

travelhive

Thanks for the description, this is helpful to know since when I Google this question the majority of comments are negative, but they primarily refer to Economy class, not Business.

travelhive

You're right, I should take this to the Alitalia Forum. I am so used to coming to the Delta forum since I'm a captive of MSP, that I forget about other Forums!

Thanks everyone for the comments.

BOSTravels

Alitalia is in administration. They received (non-)binding offers to takeover part or whole of the corp. Either you plan to fly them this month, or not at all.

steveholt

There have been rumors swirling around Alitalia forever. This is an overly dramatic representation of the situation.

travelhive

I apologize for this double posting, but I posted first in the Delta Forum since Delta is my usual airline. I need some advice from those of you who are knowledgeable about Alitalia. I'm flying from JFK to CTA (Catania, Sicily) and wanted to fly Delta or a Skyteam partner. Almost all the options the Delta website gives me for this route are Alitalia to FCO, connecting on to CTA. There are couple of other options (including Air France) that add additional stops, and one KLM option but that has a prolonger layover in AMS with the final leg to CTA on Transavia arriving at night. I am hoping for one stop at most with minimal layover time. So the best options are on Alitalia, with no real options for Delta metal.

The trans-Atlantic AZ flight would be on a Boeing 777 and I am looking at Business class. I have not heard good things about Alitalia, and all I see online is relatively negative comments about service, food and equipment although this usually refers to Economy, not Business Class. The seating chart for Business gives a somewhat confusing pattern of seats, and I assume the seats are not lie-flat like Delta would be.

I am hoping for someone who has had practical experience with AZ. Anyone have recent experience with Alitalia on the JFK-FCO route in Business class? Any recommendations or alternatives?

Thanks in advance for your help.

dh01

Seats in Business are all lay-flat, though a bit narrow. Food is good, service is somewhat demoralized as the airline is facing possible shutting down when they run through the last of the governments loan to keep it flying through the summer. When are you planning on flying, I would be a bit wary of counting on them much beyond September.

travelhive

Yikes, I was unaware of that issue! We are planning on traveling in October, so is the consensus that traveling on AZ then would be an iffy proposition? We are buying tickets through Delta, but I assume if Alitalia "goes under" Delta wouldn't necessarily be re-accomodating us...

AlicorporateUK

Hi and welcome to the Alitalia forum, travelhive - we're glad you decided to bring this up here, yet I can see you've already had some decent advice -as ever- from the DL folks!

Alitalia has a very valid J product (even though, funnily enough and apart from the food, I'm a big fan of DL). As already mentioned above, lie flat seats and good food indeed, with the only minus represented by the flight attendants who tend to disappear (at least based on my experience) once service is done and dusted. The airline is indeed facing financial turmoil but I flew them quite often in the last few months (mostly SCL on the 777 and JFK on the 330) and, apart from a few hiccups (on a recent JFK-FCO, I was handed a very dated amenity kit!), I didn't really notice any significant disruption to standard service.

Let us know should you have any further questions.

P.S.: you'll be absolutely fine in October.

G