FlyerTalk Forums - Alitalia

Quote:

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Leumas:
Other aspects of the flight, the less said the better. (They cancelled one of our flights and the only thing they did was to announce it was cancelled, before we beat them up...)</font>

Having said that, here's a trip report...

I normally wouldn't write this (especially given the lack of cattle class reports here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif, and given what has happened, I thought I’d share this one with you. This is also my first trip report, so be gentle!

These flights were taken to attend the San Marino Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Pre-Check-in
Due to the early flight, we were advised to check in from 0430, although the screen said 0445 when I arrived at the airport. From where I live, I couldn’t get to Heathrow at that hour, so I decided to catch the last tube in and stay/sleep for roughly 3 hours. I arrived at 0100.

To those that haven’t slept at Heathrow 2, try to avoid it. All seats have armrests, designed to prevent people from lying down. While it was relatively quiet, staff were milling about working along some fellow travellers. The PA system actually went on notifying people that they would be testing the fire alarm system, so there wouldn’t be need for panic. It just wasn’t comfortable for even a nap. I think I slept about 15 minutes. More people started to appear from about 0300 for my flight and other early flights.

18 April @0620
AZ227
LHR – MXP
A321
Seat 5D

By 0400, it was clear that this would be a full flight, given Easter etc. There were roughly 80 people queuing up by then. Check-in opened on time at 0445. Due to a somewhat lack of planning, there was one queue but roughly 6 agents. An Alitalia staff said just pick an agent, so that created a flood. They would have known it’s a full flight, why they didn’t lay out some rails for a queue to form was beyond me. A few counters away, the Swissair counter had railings nicely formed from the previously night.

Anyway, I stayed put with my original counter queue. As always the case, it turned out to the slowest queue. In a way, it was good because the agent was very careful in asking all the questions, explaining everything and satisfying all demands. When I was queuing, I didn’t notice the other agents doing that. The agent gave me my requested forward aisle seats. He also tried to put my QF Frequent Flyer number in the system, but didn’t have any success. At the end, I just asked him to give up as I didn’t want to hold up my queue any longer.

After check-in, I went straight up to Passport control, which wasn’t open, but always have a queue of 50+. It opened after 5 minutes or so, but by then the queue has grown to 100+. No drama after that, and since nothing was open; I went straight to the gate.

Had a 5-minute power nap at the gate. The gate agent was very cheerful for 0500, which I tried to return, but somewhat failed. I think she got the idea after a few people that 0500 probably wasn’t the best time to be cheerful.

Boarding was by row, which surprisingly, most people followed. We had to walk outside to the plan though – no bridge. 5D was the first economy row, but without the bulkhead separating business and economy. When walking past the business seats, they were a little wider than economy with similar pitch and recline (i.e., very little). Being the first row, I enjoyed slightly more legroom and pitch. From what I noticed (and from my return flight), legroom and pitch wasn’t bad anyway.

Pushed back roughly 20 minutes late and breakfast was served once the plane levelled. The meal was probably one of the worst I ever had on economy – 2 small bread rolls, one with a slice of cheese, a pastry, all served cold. A lady a few seats away ordered a special meal, which wasn’t delivered, and she wasn’t impressed and let the staff know. She machine-gunned a whole list of things that she has a reaction to, but if the meal was there, there’s little the staff could do. The staff actually went and look for something, and got some, which the lady rudely refused. Tea and coffee was at least hot, but I passed on that and decided sleep was more important. I think they were also short-staffed, with close to 200 people on board; they only had 3 staff, with 1 serving business class most of the time.

I slept quite a bit, more due to tiredness than comfort. The old man next to me had a cough that reminded me of SARS and a baby in a few seats away seemed to cry every half an hour or so…

To say the flight was crowded would be an understatement.

18 April @1020
AZ1301
MXP – BLQ
????
Seat 10J

Didn’t happen. Alitalia announced the flight was cancelled ‘due to a technical problem’. At first, Alitalia were unwilling to do anything and were quite happy to leave the people there for their next flight to BLQ (at around 1700). I was part of a tour group, the tour guide argued for about an hour. They eventually gave us a coach.

There were 2 tour groups scheduled for this flight – a Canadian cycling group and us. For some reason, Alitalia gave them a coach straight away because of the bikes and were happy to leave us there. Eventually, everybody was angry and confused. Even AZ staff was confused among themselves. After being passed around 3 coaches, our group parked ourselves on the Canadian coach and wouldn’t get out until we were confirmed on a different coach. We actually wanted our coach to go to Rimini (where we would be staying), but Alitalia refused. While I understand their position (our tickets were only to BLQ), they should show some compassion since they were causing our delay (of roughly 4 hours).

Eventually, we were on our way, but I slept most of the trip.

There was a rumour that the plane was never at MXP, the pilot couldn’t find out. He even had to share our coach to BLQ.

21 April @1050
AZ1134
AOI – MXP
ATR72
Seat 5C

AOI is a small cosy airport, but with international flights. I got the impression that it was a regional airport, but has grown to become international. We arrived early at about 0900, and check-in was smooth. I gave up on my QF number, since I’d to ask QF to do my earlier flights anyway, I didn’t bother asking.

It was good to see they’re expanding AOI, since it was literally bursting. With other flights going that morning, more than 30 people had to wait outside.

We left about 5 minutes late. ATR72 is a small plane, with leather seats. The flight was only about 2/3 full, and I managed to have a spare seat next to me. Nothing exciting to report. They served some cookies and a drink. I asked for an OJ, but got some red fruit juice without any explanation. Doesn’t matter, it’s full of chemical anyway.

21 April @1420
AZ1236
MXP – LHR
A321
Seat 9A (originally 9D)

I quite like MXP as an airport. Relatively good layout, and plenty of space. I guess when compared to LHR, anything more than 4 spare floor tiles would be counted as ‘plenty of space’ (not that I’m taking anything away from MXP).

Again the flight was full, but boarding wasn’t by row and wasn’t even announced. They just opened the gate and everyone flooded in. I just happened to be standing next to the gate watching the plane, so I boarded early. For some reasons, check-in agents (Alitalia or otherwise) completely ignored requirements. I checked in at AOI so I got my forward aisle. But there were at least 2 families that were split up, and both families have children under 10. I was asked to swap seat with one of the families. They were 2 adults with 2 children, both under 5. They were originally split into 2+1+1. Anyway, I moved to 9A, so they could have 3+1. The good thing about row 9 was, it’s the last row before the emergency exit, so I leaned back as much as I could.

I wasn’t sure whether this seating problem was entirely Alitalia’s fault, there seemed to be quite a few people connecting from a flight from the US. Anyway, it didn’t reflect very well on Alitalia.

The food was again average at best. A couple of bread-like things and a fruit salad, which was surprisingly fresh.

We landed, and I think the pilot must have got lost (at least he got lost on the ground). He first took the plane to Terminal 3, then came back out to Terminal 2…

Both flights to and from LHR didn’t offer any headphones. IFE consisted of Roadrunner cartoons, Tom & Jerry cartoons and some Canadian TV programme, called ‘Just for Laughs’ or something – playing practical jokes on people Candid Camera style. None of these required headphones, so it was OK.

There were other flights arriving at the same time, but since they were all European flights, the EU queue was massive (200+ people). Since I don’t have a EU passport, my queue was only 3-4 people long. It took about 5 minutes to go Immigration and my luggage arrived after a couple of minutes wait. After that, went straight to the tube and home for a nice hot shower…