How was the meal service on the CY segments?

And are alcoholic beverages complimentary in coach on CY?

The service on CY was more brusque than AZ. Onward from MXP-LCA, I was flying on Y class. I got my vegetarian meal - risotto rice with lentils and some spaghetti in it. Was a bit wierd to look at but tasted awfully nice plus a huge helping. Felt like they had cooked it just for me and dumped the entire contents onto my pack . There were two small containers of fruit - the usual melons, pineapple, strawberries. A bread roll that felt like it had been flying in coach class for the last few months - hard. The others had the option of chicken or pasta with one of the side dishes being a desert. If I remember right, they did have complimentary wine and liquor in coach.

Return from LCA-MXP, I was flying D class. They offered beverages before take off. Following take-off, another round of beverages and cashew-nuts. The meal offering was beef or fish. I enquired about my vegetarian option since I did not want to risk fish again. They did have it on board and it was spaghetti in tomato sauce. Tasted quite good. Couple of bread rolls, a container of cheese and grapes, salad with feta cheese and dressing. Pretty stumptious helping.

The scary thing is I normally dont remember my seat number nor hotel room number after a week. I seem to remember everything I ate and did on this trip

I fly quite a bit with Cyprus Airways. Sadly, since they started having labour trouble (ring any bells?!), their service has deteriorated. Food is quite decent, though, no cutbacks here, except on their shortest routes (LCA-DAM/BEY/CAI/TLV/AMM) where they no longer serve a hot meal (flight times are between 30-50 mins). Food and presentation might not be as "modern" as on other carriers but at least the portions are substantial and you almost always get both salad and dessert. In Business (Apollo) Class you get even more. All drinks are complimentary in both classes (except champagne, only in C) and they have thankfully changed wine suppliers so at least now you get quite decent Cypriot wines (Aes Ambelis, I especially like the red).

I am in D flying at the end of this month. Can you tell me why were you trying to avoid fish? Is it so bad that maybe I should request Veggie meal. I don't have cyprus tel # here, so (dumg question) how do I make my meal request? Yhanks in advance.

The fish on the AZ flight from YYZ-MXP was quite tasteless and I was really put off by it that I requested to have my veggie meal instead of CY's offering of Fish on its D class. The veggie meal served on CY - Y class from MXP-LCA was fabulous. Other than that no particular reason.

I usually order for Seafood or Veggie or even Kosher depending on the airline and the sector to get something different. The seafood outbound from Japan is the best. Special meals means you get served first and it is not made on the regular production line

Call Alitalia's regular reservations 800 number and select the business class option. Tell them about your meal requirement, it passes over to CY too since it is AZ code share flight.

Thanks for the info. I will call AZ.

How long does it take to transfer flights in MXP? I've asked a few times hoping to get an answer.

Where are you transferring from?

1. Non-Schengen area: If you arriving from YYZ-MXP, you can walk into the Alitalia lounge and get a boarding pass for a non-schengen destination like Cyprus.
2. Schengen Area: If you are crossing over to the Schengen area from the non-Schengen area, it depends on the time of the day you are crossing. I have seen the security and passport check-point back up quick solidly in the evening for non-EU queues (45mins-1hr). BTW they never checked me for a boarding pass when passing immigration. So dont bother looking for a transfer desk to get a boarding pass - transfer desks are never manned at MXP. Just keep heading to the gate or the lounge area.
3. Check-in at MXP: If you are stepping into the airport at MXP, the check-in can be done at the business class area and the queues are not bad for immigration and security.

The security states that one has to remove their laptop from the bags before x-ray, I never did and passed through

Hope I have answered your question?

Arrived from AMS yesterday and had a flight back to YYZ today. Since there are no hotels near to the airport and not willing to go to downtown Milan and back just for the night, decided to spend the night at the airport instead.

Arrived at the A gates (schengen) and found that it was getting quite desolate by 9:00PM. The Alitalia lounge in A gates would not check me in for the flight to YYZ the next day. They also announced that they close at 11:00PM, so I should be either looking for a hotel room or the airport floor was the only option. Decided to cross over to the B gates (non-schengen) area. Did not have a boarding pass and crossed through without any questions.

The restaurants close at 10:00PM on this section. There are about half a dozen chairs that have leg rests and quite comfortable (a poor mans version of a business class seat ) in this area. Tried it a bit and was not getting much sleep. Instead spent 12.60 euros for 24 hrs wireless internet access and was watching a lot of videos on youtube.com. There are few points that have power supply and non are close to chairs. No cops to bother you unlike Singapore. One could even stretch out on the floor and not be bothered.

At 6:00 AM the lounges opened. I headed to the one in the B gates and made good use of their shower facilities. Now feel groggy like having taken a red-eye flight. Cant wait to get home.

Have you checked the Milan airports website? http://www.sea-aeroportimilano.it/

Or alitalia.com?

Yes and I've checked Sabre as well. But the times vary between 1hr to 1:15

...maybe 10 minutes but it was a sat. morning...the biz lounge in MXP was packed...its a pretty crappy lounge with only good espresso making up for the general lousyness of it. get the ladies in the lounge to issue your boarding pass for the cyprus flight.

...yyz check in easy as very little line at biz class check in at yyz...they use AC lounge which in the temproary departure area (airport is being upgraded) has all the old furniture from the AC lounge that has now been updated in terminal 1 proper. But booze and soup, crackers salad and munchies were on offer so it was fine. Boarding was a bit of chaos as except for special needs passengers they dont pre-board J, I made the assumption they did went to front of line and had some old italian guy get mad at me. GA said to the guy we were J and we could board when we liked but an announcement would have been nice. Pre take off sparkling was ok....meal was fish and steak, I had the fish it was fine and the starter gnocchi with cherry tomatoes was actually pretty good. Drank a so so Chianti and a quite good white from sicily which i forget the name of. Flight arrived in MXP 1/2 hour early..so we trudged to the lounge. Its pretty lousy, just crakers cookies chips, but espresso was pretty good. Had the ladies at the desk take care of getting us upgraded to J on the flight to cyprus...this was made easy by having Nicolo inserting a note on the file. J on Cyprus air 2 seat x 3 config...food was god awful as was the wine. Touched down in cyprus on sched. Got the rental car and drove to le meridien in Limissol. limissol not so great, kinda low budget tourist destination with only 4 seasons and le meridien on the high end. Resort was very nice as was the brekkie. enjoyed cyprus, found it more middle eastern than like the greek island, but lots of good history and ruins to visit. Spent 5 nights there and enjoyed it alot.
Flight to rome departed on time, had gate agent put us in J and brekkie on flight was better than dinner 5 days previous. In rome is where AZ really shined. My wife and i were planning on flying to MXP then taking the train to Venice. I mentioned this to the gate agent and she said go to the tix office they will change it for you. Well they did, so we went directly to venice!!! Nice one, not only that we were in a J seat (no J service)...and the departure was leaving in 10 minutes and the gate was about 20 ft. from the tix office total layover time in rome about 25 minutes!! Nice one AZ!
Once in venice well its venice..we had a suite at the danielli which opened on to the canal...champers and a birthday cake (it was my 40th) were in the room waiting....great meals...great place and 25C and sunny every day
to get to milan we took the vapretto #82 to the train station...a beautiful 30 min ride...took the first class Eurostar to Milan (60E for 2) ...and stayed at the Westin Palace in Milan (about a 5 min walk from the train station). Bus to MXP took about an hour but that was in rush hour traffic. Check ina t MXP even for biz class was chaos...took about 20 min (not enuf GA's)..so we only had about 5 min of lounge time before walking to the departure gate. Flight had a 45 min delay due to air traffic but we made up the time during the flight..so we arrived on time back at yyz. Security was extra tight due to those assho!es who planned on bombing the stock ecxchange but it only added 5 min...there was just 2 extra document checks. Overall a great trip with AZ really coming through....every segment in J and changing the tix to venice was just great.

We're planning on staying at the Le Meridien as well. Taking one child and was mainly staying there for the pool area. If you visited the pool how was it, any extras other than just the pool? maybe small waterslide, etc.? Thanks for any info.

...3 or 4 large pools that are very nice...a small water slide at one. There are kids activities so your little one will enjoy it. Buffet breakfast was very good, as was the coffee. Ask the consierge to send you to Cypriot meze place for dinner...it is up the mountain off of exit 23 about 10 minutes from the hotel...sorry i cant remember the name but he will know the place...you will need reservations as it is packed every night...its pretty good as is the italian place called al dente. Limmisol itself isnt very nice but if you have a car, the city of paphos is and a drive into the mountains is very nice. Be prepared for very hot weather as it got as high as 39C while we were there.