Just thought I'd share my experience. The airline rundown was right on. All my experiences they never boarded business class first. I flew business all the way and applied everything to Delta Skymiles. Everything has applied thus far at 150%. Everything was flawless until the last segment from MXP-YYZ. Airplane was delayed 1hr at the gate and landed one hour late. YYZ is ridiculous and I had 1.5 hours until my next flight from YYZ to the states. When I actually got to the ticket counter to check into my intl flight to the US I had 45 minutes. Check-in ? No problem....

Just to state the obvious: in order to save money, use public transit. In my experience it was faster, easier, and cost a ton less than taxi.

Hotel wise I stayed at Antonis G Apartments in LCA . It costs 10 pounds to get there and Antonis charges 15 pounds a night to stay in a "suite." 10 pounds to get back = 35 pounds = ~$80? Something like that. It's a very cheap hotel 2 stars I think) but I was only in LCA for about 12 hours so what the heck. It was OK for me and my wife.

Rome: I stayed at Hotel Rafaello. Took the express train from FCO - downtown rome. Cost = 9.5 euros per person. 30 minute train ride and the hotel was about 10 minute walk from the train station. The hotel was so-so (3 star) but the location was awesome. 10 minutes from the Coliseum and a number of other sites. If you want to go to the catacombs you just take a bus which costs 1 euro (even tho i never saw a local actually pay....).

Milan: This was the best hotel, even though this was also a 12 hour stopover. 4 star hotel called Starhotels Anderson. It reminds me of W hotels. I paid $110 per night and whatever room we got, the room rate indicated it actually cost about 530 euros a night. Wonderful bed, full bathroom with tub and TV in bathroom... it was very nice.
Take the Malpensa Shuttle Bus from MXP, which costs 5 euros a person, to Stazione Centrale. It's about a 35-40 min bus ride and the hotel is literally across the street.

If you were staying longer in Cyrpus would you have been content to stay at the Antonis G?

yow newbie, personally, no. But that's just me being a spoiled baby. I'll give you a brief description though. It was 2 rooms, living area with couch, extra bed, and kitchenette. Bathroom had tub and shower. Master bedroom had one king size bed and balcony facing the side of another building. No TV.... It appeared to be clean but I wasn't 100% confident. Note that Cyprus is facing water shortages so when you use the bathroom, ALL toilet paper goes into the trashcan. This is the standard everywhere you go. '

Location: It appeared to be in the middle of suburban Larnaka. They claimed it was a 15 minute walk to the beach but when me and the wife followed their directions it was more like 35-40 minutes.... but when I brought this to their attention they said we went the wrong way? We did make it to the beach which is wonderful and enjoyed a nice dinner at a french restaurant of all places.

If you're staying in Cyprus for a while, I would suggest getting something near the beach. Personally I wouldn't want to pay more than $100 a night considering there are numerous cheap places to stay like Antonis G.

Assume you're just referring to CY and not AZ?

Including your Cyprus Airways segments?

Thanks!

Thanks for the info! we'll be there in late August and definitely want to stay near a beach!

Every segment was credited at 150% that was a AZ coded flight. This included MXP-LCA AZ flight number operated by CY. Strangely, however, when we retruned LCA-FCO our boarding passes were issued as CY and it now indicated a CY flight number, so that did not credit. Just to re-iterate, everything else did credit at 150%. I think total we received something like 16 or 17 thousand miles EQM.

In my experience every flight except one did not board business class first. The one flight that did board business class (YYZ-MXP) boarded by zone (business is in zone B), but EVERYONE queued up and AZ reps didn't care. So, if that's how they're going to do it, I see no preferred boarding.

if you are staying longer in CY, you dont want to stay in Larnaca.

You are better off going somewhere else.

I personally like Agia Napa (pronounced something like "Aiya Napa") and Paphos.

Other beach options would be around Limmasol.

This is exactly my experience with DL. Anything with AZ/AM flight numbers gets credited. In contrast, the DL website specifically states "no credit" for CO/NW coded flights with different operators.

Thanks for the report!

Any signs of power ports on the AZ planes?

How long does it take to change aircraft in Milan?

No power ports on any of the planes I was on. I think they were the 767-300 and the MD-80(?) I think I flew from FCO-MXP and one other one... I can't remember. They probably have them on the 777. Also, none of the flights I flew had personal TVs or functional telephones (not that you'd want to make a phone call at $10/min).

Regarding making a connection in Milan... If I recall correctly we deplaned on the tarmac and took a bus to the arrivals terminal where you go through customs (which took about 2 minutes). Actually it was interesting because business class deplaned first (probably about 10 people) and we got on the bus and the bus just took off w/o waiting for anyone else. And again I'm speaking from hazy memories, we then had to go through security again for the international flight to LCA. That wasn't a problem. Probably altogether it took about 30 minutes from deplaning to arriving at the AZ lounge prior to boarding. Keep in mind we only had carry-on, no check-in baggage. That will definitely slow your progress. Most of the time was spent walking. Also, we had literally 5 hours before our next plane so we were moving at a pretty leisurely pace. Hope this helps, let me know if you need any more info.

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Can I make it in an hour to clear customs and whatever is needed and to the next flight with checked luggage? We are spending the day in NYC before flying onto MXP and LCA.

Which airport is your question posted towards? What is your "next flight"?

Sorry, MXP. We fly EWR-MXP-LCA with exactly one hour between flights.