FarRider

i just returned from 2 weeks in italy and went through hell and back going through fco. all airlines traveling to the us, regardless if they are american carriers or not, have been cordoned off in terminal c. you can only access the airline ticket counter to pick up your boarding pass after going through an initial security check line that every passenger from every airline must go through, all at the same time, before reaching their respective ticket counters. on my day of travel, i decided to arrive early just in case and was unpleasantly surprised to see an over a thousand foot long line reach all the way to terminal b. although the exp/f class line at the counter was quick and only took 10 minutes, the security line and customs also took over an hour. in total, it took me more than 2.5hrs from arrival at the airport to the gate. my friends were lucky because this does not apply when flying to other countries and they connected through zrh and fra while inside security. i was the only one flying directly to the us from fco. bummer.

erik123

This is Italy! - if you are flying F or with small kids go to the front of the line and pretend you're entitled to it (works for me every time in Italy).

BigLar

Flew out of FCO a couple of weeks ago. Got to the airport about 90 minutes before flight time. Printed the BP's the night before. Dropped the bags off at Fast Drop and proceded to security. Through is 5 minutes. Was at the gate with plenty of time to spare.

Your Mileage May Vary.

hairpeace

The female customs officers are FCO are complete b1tches.

Bretteee

Rome airport is even bad for intra European flights. I flew Rome to GVA and we waited about 30 minutes to get through the security due to long lines. Check in at Swiss also took over30 minutes. As a result some people missed the flight and we barely made it. We also had to take a train to get to the gate on top of all this.

alect

The female check in agents are pretty much the same!

kanebear

As are the Gate Agents the lounge dragons and just about everyone else I encountered going through FCO and MXP. Only time in an airport I've EVER gotten in a shouting match with airline staff. I am very very good about keeping my cool but there's something about the particular combination of arrogance, indifference, rudeness and loathing that the folks at FCO exude that just shoved me over the cliff.

I think it was after I asked the GA if she could help find which was the correct gate (after three gate changes and the monitors still reflecting the ORIGINAL gate) and being told angrily "I don't have time for that... go find someone else" that I lost it. Mind you, her flight had pushed, she had just finished sorting boarding passes, and no one else was in her departure area. Considering HER gate was said to be my departure gate.. well... At least I got her attention.

alect

Me too!!

yamonjon

What day and time did you arrive at FCO to experience these delays. I ask as these two things can greatly impact lines and those going can put into perpesctive what can be expected. Thanks!

Yamonjon

aSiAnRiCk

Wow .. that's completely unacceptable.

Did you ask to speak to her supervisor to report her behaviour?

fduvall

I just flew through FCO on Tuesday and did not experience any trouble. Unlike OP, we were not flying to US, so did not experience the "pre-security" line.

We had to drive from Rome and traffic was horrible (almost 2.5 hours) so we were cutting it close. We were flying LX, where I am elite, so went to front of line with bags and check in took less than 3 minutes. Security line was a bit longer, but manageable and the woman at security was friendly.

The airport is a real dump, though, and I had a subpar experience with Sixt rental cars. Overall, one of my least favorite airports.

fduvall

MissThe90's

Unfortunately, this only seems to work for Italians in Italy That's been my experience anyway...

House

This is an Italian airport we are talking about - the supervisor would simply have supported her and the original poster would have wasted even more time. The ONLY way to react is to walk away. Any complaining can be done afterwards by letter or email (it will still have zero impact in most cases though).

If you smile and treat the staff like God it usually works much better, but even then there is no guarantee you will not encounter this type of reaction. The staff are very well protected and know it, and this produces the kind of incidents described above.