Hi,

I'd like to first apologize if this is in the wrong section.

I've been searching the archives for information on Alitalia. I'll be taking it on a transatlantic flight in a few weeks.

I'm a bit concerned because what I am getting the impression that the service isn't very good, the fleet is old and, above all, that they are often on strike.

Given that I'm returning to the US for 5 days, taking the risk of a strike is something I'm ill prepared to face.

Also, I have AF elite --- is this going to do me any good on AZ?

So, I guess my question is: Is it worth it or should I seriously consider switching my ticket to a DL or AF flight?

Thanks!

Having been diverted to them from FCO yesterday morning, your question is timely. So I will try to make your question fit the category with a mini-trip report. I think that it might be better to fly Aeroflot than Alitalia.

The Report!

Original routing, FCO-AMS (KL), AMS-SEA (NW), SEA-PDX (Horizon)

The wonderful new, revised routing due to 7000 tran-Atlantic passengers being stuck in Schipol due to the flooding of 3 of the 4 runways from the large storm on Saturday and Sunday.

FCO-EWR (AZ), EWR-PDX (CO)

Arrived at FCO terminal B at 0435 on the special van from the Hilton Rome Airport located on the other side of the parking structure. Hilton Gold, reward stay, executive floor without asking, comfortable room, use of executive lounge, shared 4 bottles of vino with 4 people from Knoxville who were attempting to reduce their wine inventory to managable for its passage through U.S. customs in Atlanta. Thanks to Jim and Mark, Liz and Debby. Also drank a couple of glasses of Hilton's Vino Rosso after 1830 when they started serving.

A pleasant way to end the day after a harrowing day. Small incident involving autos, collisions, Polizia Stradale, forms, written statements, tire changing and traffic tickets (No not mine, but Europcar's for improper vehicle documentation).

Left the celebrating Tennesseans who struck out in search of gellato and MrsOpus and I struck out (phraseology meant) for the Hilton Restaurant. Decided on the buffet restaurant after deciding not to eat the Euro 16 burger in the other restaurant. Costly mistake, promotion wine Chilean was undrinkable. The sorta affordable Italian Red (A Montechiano) was sold out. Was offered another alternative Italian which turned out to be a White (Bianco). Sent it back since Bianco does not = Rosso. Ended up with bad Chilean. Salads on buffet quite good, entrees absolutely sucked. Enuf said. Final insult was the bill for Euro 96 for two buffets (E35 each), undrinkable wine, and one bottle of water,

Surprise: KLM does not open until 0500 /--, more like 0515. KLM male agent walks up and explains AMS situation, tells all connecting passengers to either follow him or go to ticket booths opposite. We manage to be 1st in line to rebook. Agent does admirable job searching for connections and we end up on itinerary above. She, of course, cannot assign seats on CO.

Off to Alitalia, note to self, Terminal B is for AZ domestic and EU only. Finally get to Terminal C for transatlantic check-in to have fallen back to 3rd in line. Not a problem at 0540 since AZ is closed. Rebooked flight boards at 0855. Small line forms. Much longer line forms for the LHR departure at the next check-in desk, unmanned, of course, at this early hour. Included in this line are two guys from DTW who managed to get on yesterday's KLM flight, taxiied out, and cancelled. Amusing story from them as to how their baggage seemed to have disappeared between the gate and the gate never to be seen again helped to spend the time.

Finally one person shows up to start LHR check-in for the 100 or so people in line. Every 10 or 15 minutes another individual shows up to help. Finally, our flight posts one the display above the 3 desks assigned to the EWR flight. Obvious progress, but still unmanned. About 0630 someone shows up to start the process for our short line. 2nd agent shows up shortly later. We are prepared, DL cards in hand, mouth asks for 2 exit row aisles. Reponse is that they have 1 exit row aisle and a bulkhead aisle. Perfect since MrsOpus likes the bulkhead because no one can recline a wall onto her tray table. Unfortunately the Agent could not read the seating chart and assigned the seat in the row behind the exit row. She also assigned 12AB on the CO flight. The infamous window and center that airlines think all married passengers desire. Requested that she change it to two aisle anywhere on the CO aircrafted. She responded that she could not assign seats as requested because her computer didn't speak with Continental's. Rhetorical Question: How in hell did she assign seats and issue BPs in the first place? Answer: Must have been Alitalia magic or perhaps her computer had just gone on a general strike.

As experience travelers, MrsOpus and I know to seek out the actual airline ticket office when all else fails. It seems that FCO has a CO office. It is in terminal C near the CO & DL check-in area. Unfortunately the area is fenced off and guarded by cops who think highly of themselves and only no one phrase in English (delivered with a sneer). These guys are much different than those belonging to the road police. The phrase in case you were wondering. "After 7" 0700 arrives and departs, camoflage suited armed cops arrive, Submachine gun totting cops (with real bullets) show up, Plain clothes cops show up. Delta staff mill around. Continental ticket people have been there since 0650. Line stretches down the terminal. We have formed our own by leaning on the BA sales desk thus avoiding being stuck with the baggage totting horde. Finally, the fence is rearranged, there is still a gap on our end. Passports are whipped out, the magic words, "Continental ticketing" are uttered and we proceed to CO.
They are able to issue aisles, but not exit rows despite our standing in front of them exhibiting signs of life and ability to open the exit in emergency. They cannot assure that our FF #s are in and certainly cannot wait list us for FC upgrades. "After all this is an international station and we are not allowed to do that." Rhetorical Question #2: "Are there 2 Continental airlines?" BTW, NW has this same problem.

Armed with our precious boarding passes, the flimsy flight interuption manifest (handwritten replacement tickets) Continental ticket folder. BTW, Alitalia does not have folders, and passports we proceed to passport control and security screening. Stamp, stamp, put bag on belt, set off metal detector, promply assume the position, two second wanding and away we go. MrsOpus bypassed the wanding. Machine must have bomb-sniffer since it was unattended. Either the security was really rotten or the TSA needs to go to Italy for training.

Will eliminate the shopping and breakfast report and take us directly to gate C-1. 0855 boarding comes and goes. Finally decide to join the small mob forming in front of the entrance. Discover that someone from Alitalia (or maybe it was security) has broken off the key in the lock and the doors cannot be opened to reach the entrance of the jetway. Radios are used, cops show up, mill around, some go out an unmarked glass door to the sterile area. Another goes out an alarmed door setting off sirens and buzzers that uncessingly screech. Main door is finally forced open while we endure the mind-numbing sirens.
5 minutes or so later someone figures our how to shut off the sirens, but we still stand there as the mob grows exponentially. An unitelligible announcement is made in Italian and maybe English. One cannot understand it because of the noise of the crowd. Someone moves the rope. the crowd moves forward, passports are glanced at, boarding passes are fed trough the readers and we head for the aircraft. It is a 767, grim looking on the interior, narrow aisles once we pass through business class, drab seats, maybe an inch more pitch than NW and perhaps a half inch more width over the DC10. The bulkhead is right in front of one;s knees, so there is no ability to stretch one's legs except in the aisle. I end up in the bulkhead seat, MrsOpus in the aisle on the two side. The crew with the exception of the purser are all aged males, unsmiling, unresponsive, basically grim. This said by an aged male.

We settle in, the crew comes by with a laundry basket on wheels full of newspapers. I make the mistake of reaching for one and my arm is rudely removed from what is obviously the crew's domain. Finally 2 newspapers are procured plus one for my middle-seated neighbor. Eventually, it is intuatively determined that her seat is not in the domain of the surly FA serving my side and all service at her seat must be received from the other aisle.

In all fairness, they did a drink service before lunch and with lunch. Another one was done with the pre-arrival snack service. And as a DL code share there was no charge for wine. Food was marginal, excellent slice of proscutta, awful celery salad, mystery meat in mystery sauce, awful gelatinous pasta with tomato sauce provided in one lump (Hey, this is the Italian National Airline) and a fairly decent screw-top bottle red wine. Coca-cola light was available in large bottles, no ice. Somewhat grudgingly provided. They did sort of throw a second roll at me near meal's end. Rolls were pretty good.

Seats had practically no padding, similar to the next to the window exit row seats on a NW A319. Despite the padding problem, the seat was bearable. MrsOpus did not fare so well and waged a war with the exit row recliner in front of her. He went back, she pushed, he went forward. She seemed to have won after a couple of hours. At one point he growled at me and made a number of comments none of which I understood. Why bother to aim his unhappiness at anyone except the one making him unhappy. Perhaps he was a European gentleman. Actually, it is suspected that he was a government official (low level) traveling with his wife or girlfriend.

Self service refreshments, Coke, diet coke, Fanta orange, canned orange juice and water were available in the galleys. One could ask one of the surely attendents or eventually could serve oneself.

Restroom report. Ever been on a train in Russia? Now you understand. It certainly did not have a new Boeing 767 smell unless Boeing has introduced a new air freshener. As the flight progressed the level of odor increased.

Movie report. Woody Allen through the plastic straw earphones. That is what is great about NW, no reason to complain about the IFE. Italian flick subtitles. Did not watch any of it. Actually spoke with seatmates out of boredom and discomfort.

Excercise report. Exercise video showing movements that could not be accomplished in the space provided was shown. Aisles so narrow that one could not walk around. Room in rear for 3 people to stand periodically getting a wiff of the restrooms. BTW the rear galley was directly adjacent.

First smile seen from any of the crew was upon debarkation. Guess one of them was happy to see us go.

On the flip side.

Success finally in getting both of us into 1st on CO EWR-PDX transcon. Menu, unlimited drinks, best airline meal ever, choice of 3 or 4 entrees. Shrimp were gone by row one, we were in row 6. Lobster appetizer, good salad, veal chop was outstanding, even provided us with sundaes. Smiles, three attendants for 24 FC seats. Great attitudes. Could this really be the CO some of the critics describe? Certainly better than the same flight in coach 4 weeks prior.

Great report, opushomes!
Dctorres, I believe your question has been answered, resoundingly so!

Alitalia should be avoided like the plauge. Period.

A very good friend of mine flys Alitalia between New York and Rome twice a year in Y class and says they are fine. I recently flew them but it was C class and we were satisfied.

However in my opinion on the transatlantic routes make sure you are either on a Boeing 767 or 777. Avoid the older MD-11s and old 747-200s though I think they no longer operate them.

You have to beware of regular strikes by Alitalia crews and/or the airport control tower or the whole country.

However this should be no problem if you are planning short term as all strikes are pre-announced. When we travelled in May/June we missed 3 strikes in a 2 month period but we knew ahead of time that we were OK.

In terms of baggage, though we made a connection we got our bags. I have heard of problems in Paris. In fact my aunts bag was lost this summer connecting in Paris from JFK to Geneva. It ended up in Madrid of all places and took 3 days to reach her home.

It was also difficult to contact AF.

To be fair, some of their intra-Europe flights are OK. I ended up on AZ FCO-LHR when my BD flight went mechanical - it was a sparkling new A320/321 with excellent legroom (at least 33"), which made up for the food (only just acceptable) and bizarre IFE (as far as I could tell it was 2 hours of 'You've Been Framed' in Italian... aaarrgghh!). So, far from a great flight but hardly any worse than many others, and the extra space was appreciated compared to BD.

As for long haul, however, I'm certainly not brave enough to try them!

Oh dear.... you guys aren't giving me much reason to look forward to this flight. ;-)

Unfortunately, I'm going to do it only to suffer and qualify for SkyTeam Elite Plus for the year. If I do Delta or AF, I'll end up short and have to wait until the next trip.

I had a great flight with them from Milan - Marseilles. Very short but the service was good and the food was great for such a short flight.

My problem is the MXP and FCO airports. ABSOLUTE chaos and I would avoid Alitalia just because of that.

My first and last experience with them was intra-europe FCO-CDG earlier this year. FCO got shut down for most of the morning due to fog and our 9 am departure slowly slipped to 10, 11, 12, 1, 2... and then left despite me checking the status every 30 minutes or so with the lounge attendant and her promising to make an announcement when they started boarding. Her response when I asked her where the announcement was a shrug. We were rebooked onto the next departure (sched 3:25, actual 4:30) and endured no fewer than FOUR gate changes in the hour between getting our boarding passes and finding the gate. At one point the monitors had a gate listed that didn't exist... the Alitalia transit desk had no idea where the flight was taking off from... we finally found the flight by blundering into it in terminal B... when it was showing to be departing out of A (or maybe C, can't remember). Boarding was a mess, we were in C but thanks to getting to the gate late were the LAST to get on the plane... bins were stuffed by people shoving their luggage into the first bin they saw. The AZ stewardesses ended up seatbelting my carryon bag into an empty seat 'cause there was literally zero room above. In flight AZ was ok, the food was decent and the stews were warm... I was surprised to see that AZ operates what looks like a US domestic F cabin as C. I assume that will go away along with the Slug-80s?

I have only flown them twice inter-european, but both times were a huge disapointment. Rude service from an extremely surly crew who were more interested in chatting to each other, even while serving drinks. The whole experience just seemed very unorganised, i.e. when landing at heathrow there was only one bus to take pax to the terminal, half the pax were left standing on the tarmac in the rain for 15 mins. I dont even want to begin talking about the chaos that was supposed to be "check-in"...

However, these experiences were based on only two flights so maybe i was just very unlucky.

Vaab I spent 6 hours at Rome airport in transit and never got bored. I find it very pleasant. However it was indeed a pain to take a bus from the plane to a small train to get to the terminal.

I'm flying Alitalia from FCO-LHR, connecting with AA onwards to JFK in Janurary. After reading these posts I'm getting a bit nervous as we only have a two hour connection at LHR.

My questions:
1. since these tickets were purchased at AA.com, is AA obligated to accommodate us if we fail to make the connection because of Alitalia, or are we just SOL? I would think that since American allowed a two hour connect to be ticketed, they have some responsibility in the matter.
2. concerning checked baggage. Will I have to pick it up following the Alitalia flight and re-check it when checking in for the AA flight in LHR?
3. From some comments in this post it seems that Alitalia doesn't always provide jetway service at LHR. For this flight (FCO-LHR) will we have to deplane onto the tarmac and board a bus at LHR?
4. Finally, the AA website shows that only drink service will be offered on this flight. Is this correct, or will there be a more substantial offering.

Thanks,
FlyerBeek

Beek,

the bus service was for flights to Milan, I assume (am not sure though) that it may be the same for Rome. A bus isnt really a problem though, its a very short ride. However it does help if Alitalia remembers to order them/order enough for all Pax, standing on tarmac in the rain is not that much fun.

Although I have travelled AZ only once, experience was similar to kanebear. I would love to try it again however, as there are such mixed reports on AZ

As long as it's all one ticket you will not be SOL. If the system let you book it then you are within permitted connection time.

Horror stories aside, I've flown AZ from Toronto-Italy in Y and it was an average flight. Nothing special, but nothing like what was experienced by some of the other posters either. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never had problems at either FCO or MXP either. I wouldn't call either a model of efficiency but still easier to get around than, say, LHR.

Only problem is that ATM's at MXP are all landside so if you are a connecting passenger you have to go landside if you want any local currency.