They've certainly had enough practice. Running to time may be a novel concept for AZ but many other carriers manage it on a regular basis. I suppose the name should give us a clue. Alitalia: Always Late In Taking-off, Always Late In Arriving.
Given AZ's timekeeping record you probably get to spend a lot more time there than in other carrier's lounges. Get the right credit card and you'll get lounge access no matter who you fly with.
Shame about the legroom though.
Something we can agree on! Dirty planes, surly staff, a very relaxed attitude to flying to schedule and a limited route network.
Not with their prevailing cost structure, restrictive contracts and operational inefficiency.

Basic premise of a scheduled airline? Transportation of people or goods from point A to point B on a regular and reliable basis. Does AZ do this consistently? I don't believe they do.

I had no idea how this thread would develop when I first posted, but I should have guessed there would be some ST bashing going on.

Personally, I like SkyTeam - they have a big presence in TLV (my home base) with KL, AF, AZ, OK and DL (codeshare with LY) and soon RO (and I have seen Air Europa as well from time to time), they consistently have the cheapest J and Y fares from TLV to almost everywhere I fly and I like for the fares that I fly that I get between 100 and 150% of miles on Y.

When you get right down to it, IMHO, we're travelling on a flying bus - whether its BA (my previous favorite airline till they slashed and burned lots of Y fares to 25%) KL or LH when flying in Y. I don't have high expectations from my bus driver on the ground nor do I have high expectations from the FA's. It's nice when I get treated special, but putting things in proportion none of the travel really is important (I use the five year rule for determining importance - will I remember / will it matter in five years from now).
I feel that way even though I will most likely log > 250,000 miles this year (about 25% J /75 % Y).

I guess for me the only thing that works using the 5-year rule is how I spend my miles in a memorable vacation with the family. I picked SkyTeam because they will get *me* to a meaningful return. Of course, everyone has their own special and personal perspective on choosing an alliance - I am just sharing mine...

MY LHR-FCO J trips have not given me the pleasure of their "proper premium seats" - where do I find these?

Based on my personal experience on AZ J intra-Europe, I find it difficult to agree that they are far better than EI

On the M80.

The only time I missed a connection on AZ (due to a problem with the pushback vehicle no less!), apart from paying for hotel/meals/etc, they offered to reroute me on ANY airline (I did end up flying AZ again because the only other half-reasonable choice was a BA flight departing at 6am or something silly). I was on a rather cheap economy ticket. When was the last time this happened to anyone on EI?

(BTW this was before the new EU rules came into effect)